Royal Woods, I Love You
by The 21st Century Pendragon
Summary: Not only a Valentine's special, but an anthology series of love stories (or stories about love) surrounding the Loud House universe. Clearly inspired by the movie "Paris, je t'aime".
1. How I Met Your Rita

_It has been like 20 years that I was first went head over heels to the loveliest crossing guard in the world. Then, she became my everything. But before that, this old man was at the time of his life._

 _I was everything that a bachelor was. I had a cool apartment. I was an avid baseball fan. I became part of a dance crew in my apartment complex. I had an entire collection of rock-n-roll emblems. And best of all, I got the coolest car in town, a Mustang convertible._

 _I was living the high life as a happy bachelor. Even everyone in town likes me. Well, not everyone in town, since at one moment going to work, I was pulled over by a crossing guard for not stopping by the yellow light._

 _As a professional salesman and an expert talker, I did myself to talk my way out of the situation, but I got some serious competition in the Wittiness Cup._

 _The crossing guard said, "Sir, I am afraid that you violated Ordinance…"_

" _I know. I know, ma'am. I know I violated traffic regulations. But in my defense, I am color blind."_

" _Oh, really sir? May I ask, if that you're color blind, why were you permitted to drive?"_

" _I was trained…to drive…by a specialist. Need this on the job."_

 _She knew I was bluffing at the top of my head. No words could escape me. "Alright sir, I need to ask of your driver's license."_

" _Oh, this is how we do it. You, with the ability to stop time, can just stop me for going to work on time. Now, I have to suffer a market drop from my sales of kitchenware."_

" _You sell kitchenware?"_

" _Yeah. Why? Kitchen up on the business. Hehehe. Get it?"_

" _Not a knife joke, sir."_

" _Yep." I followed the crossing guard to her station nearby the intersection. But out of my wits, I "mistakenly" gave to her instead my credit card wallet keeper._

" _Uhmm sir, this is your credit card."_

" _Oh, sorry about that. Such a klutz. I must have left it in my compartment back at the car."_

" _Alright, let's get it."_

" _No ma'am. I will be quick. I will get it for you."_

 _Her eyes glared at me suspiciously, knowing I was up to something. Nevertheless, she leads me to the door. Then I fled away from her station and towards my car. She tried to catch me up by tasing me, but she only reached my leg, which was painful, but I got to my car in a snap. Ooh, what a success that was._

 _Just the day of a life as a kitchenware salesman. Speaking of which, I was assigned on a megasupermarket on downtown. Everyday was like pitching the idea to willing customers to try out the best utensils that J. A. Henckels could ever craft._

" _This, my friend, is a Four Star series Henckels kitchen knife, best to use for the any food needed cutting. Fruits, vegetables, pork, beef, chicken fish, the whole enchilada. Indeed, the best cutlery you need for the all the slicing and dicing." I keep barking out those words to onlookers and passersby. It was the best time for me to encourage people. Encouragement is a lovely thing. That's why encouraging people to buy our products is good._

" _You're looking at a TWIN cuisine tournament knife, the best in the market to feel like a ninja chef. Smooth, suave and stainless. You can pierce this easily to the thickest turkey in the market, like you can pierce a woman's heart." Luckily, I told that line to a group of European cuisine college students._

" _Can you use that to stab your enemies?" one dude with a mullet asked that question._

" _Not unless those enemies are afraid of Henckels special Twin series kitchen blade," I answered. And another person comes, and another one comes, and another, all in the day._

" _May I present you this spoon and fork set. This is best to set the mood of your most romantic date."_

" _Henckels Four Star knife set, the best cutlery company in the business. Sharply dressed for your dressed chicken. And such a knife way to use on every occasion."_

" _On the flipside, you got your best spatula in the house. The head designed with plastic sustainability and gastronomic technology that you can use to catch the stars."_

" _Let me get to the point. This point, Professional 'S' series, stainless and smooth silver-textured. The 'S' stands for sophisticated."_

 _Like I said, everyday felt like a pitch you do to your bosses. In fact, customers are the bosses of the town._

 _But one boss ain't like the rest of customers that stepped up._

" _Excuse me, do you sell egg beaters?" that customer asked._

 _She ain't like other customers. She was so heavenly at sight. She got curly golden locks that wave perfectly as the wind passes. She got a pearl necklace that decorated her neck with pride. She was in a pink dress with white polka dots, supported by a red bow on her waist. And she was walking with white heels. She approached me like an angel. How angelic in sight!_

 _I tried to utter my first words for such a wonderful lady. Thankfully, I overcame it like professional salesmen do, "Oh, yes. Madame, we do."_

 _Then I showed her the latest model of egg beaters that Henckels has in stock right now. "Here's our finest egg beaters. Easy to handle with a non-slippery metal handle grip. Best for your baking and cooking solutions."_

" _Those are such deep words I gotta say."_

" _Well, that's for people with passion for bringing the best utensils for their lovely customers." I flirted a little bit to that customer that I tend to push it to the next level. "So, what you need it for?"_

" _I plan to set up my own café. So I started it in the kitchen with experimenting on pastries and baked delectable. Need to impress my backup partners. I mean investors, though."_

" _Hmmm…need kitchen tools you say?" And with that, I showed her all our products. We bonded over talking about utensils and then to cooking. From that day on, she visited me at work to ask for advice on kitchen artillery. There, that time, I knew that she was the one, the one that I want to be with till death do us apart, the one that I want to love all my life._

" _Hey, I wasn't able to catch your name," I said to her._

 _And she answered, "Linda."_

 _O' those words reminded me of tender sweet paradise, a tropical paradise. "Loud. Lynn Loud. Sr. That's with a Sr. hehe."_

 _Glad I introduced myself in the last minute. I thought I would lose such a darling face. But in such a miracle, our relationship blossomed. I always pick her up at the café she worked for. We started going to dinners. We went to a lot of places. We bonded over cycling, rock music and comedy gigs. She was perfect. And together, we were the wonderful couple._

 _One day, I took her for a vacation in New York City. We booked a room together in this fancy hotel suite. I think it was called Tar-rrump Towers. Something like that. She suggested it in anyway._

 _On the way to fetch her, I was stopped again by that snotty crossing guard who pulled me over._

" _What's up officer?" I smooth-talked her. "How's the wild goose chase for me? I guess you're have t-raffic job stuck on your spot while trying to find me."_

" _Let's just settle this, Mr. Loud so I can let you go," the crossing guard insisted._

" _You really have the ability to stop time with just your mime hands."_

" _Alright, alright. Fine." I pretended to search for my license. Look, I'm not a con artist but I just like playing with the only person who hates me in Royal Woods. "Hmmm, officer, license that my driver's ID is nowhere in my wallet."_

" _Don't play bluff on me."_

" _No really. I sense a hooligan tampering your post." And there it is for real, a hooligan barging into the crossing guard's station. She attempted to catch him. And finally, that became her distraction for me to escape from her. It was another sweet victory for Lynn Sr.! I don't know if she caught the guy. But who cares? Lynn Sr. the victor!_

 _Finally, I arrived at Linda's house to see it different from the last time I visited her house. I knocked on the door and there she was, but with tears on her eyes. She took me in, but I was puzzled of what she was feeling. And as she offered me a seat on her dining table, she told me this: "Lynn, I know we've been together. And I really, really enjoyed our company to each other. But I was given a job opportunity at Cleveland. I could not refuse since my parents insisted me to help our business. I have no other choice."_

" _But baby, you could have fought for it."_

" _I know, but my mom gave me one thing. She said that if I could reach our quota, I could go back here and perhaps start my café here."_

" _That's great. Alright Linda, let's cast our vision. Make it there. Make it here. Our goal, for us together. Do you solemnly swear?"_

" _I solemnly swear, Lynn Loud Sr. Hopefully."_

" _This is hope."_

" _I will try to call you, or send letters to you."_

" _Baby, for us!"_

" _For us." With that, we toasted to a foreseeable, prosperous future. At that period, we thought we could make it together. So, we heavily relied on our aloof future fantasies._

 _Months go by, and I have not seen her. Sales were fine, but I felt a decline when the presence of other competitors popped out. I tried to wait for Linda to contact me but she never did._

 _Another months go by, and I was really desperate for her presence. Until one day, a letter was sent to my address. It was from Linda. I didn't remember the words, but one statement struck me. It said: "Now I realized that I was taken to another direction that I cannot turn back on, I wished to spend my life here. I had run a successful café here, and met a wonderful man. He was just like you, smooth, fun and free-spirited. We chose to spend our lives with each other. I am sorry about that, my dearest Lynn. I hope you can forgive. I will try to make it up to you, if I get to see you again. I will always cherish the times we had. And I hope you do too. I love you dearest. – Linda."_

 _Of course, it was a letter confirming our separation. Naturally, I got depressed that day. She was my everything. And now, that everything got away. Everything went gray for me. And that annoying song "All By Myself" kept playing in my head._

 _That night, I retreated to a Ruby Tuesday, where I wallowed my sorrows with a strawberry milkshake._

" _I…drink…my milkshake!" I kept uttering like a drunk guy, spouting references from the obvious movie I am referencing. "I…drink…my milkshake!"_

 _I tried to get back up, but seeing everyone was on their casual business, I collapsed on the floor. Though, I didn't faint. I got up at once and, coincidences of coincidences, saw the crossing guard before on a red dress. I guessed that she was expecting a date. But as I stayed for a few moments, no guy has approached her yet. So I did instead for kicks._

" _Well, well, well. Isn't it lady crossing guard…"_

" _You again. What do you want?"_

" _You just came to my hangout place."_

" _Your place, eh?"_

" _Mhmm."_

" _Is that why you drown yourself in milkshake? You got some on your chin."_

" _Oh." Then I wiped that milkshake stain from my chin. "It's what you call shaking off your stress. Get it?"_

" _Up for your_

 _So, what brings you here?"_

" _I am currently waiting for my blind date."_

" _Oh, a blind date…"_

" _Yes, my idiot colleagues set me up for a date with whosoever like to meet me."_

" _Hmm, seems your Romeo drawing near."_

" _I think so. And they said he might be here on T-minus 10 seconds. So, if I were you, I get up that chair and move away for you to not meddle on my date, starting…now."_

" _Alright, if you insist." I got up from seat and moved to another, with a perfect vantage point at the crossing guard. Minutes went by, and still her date has not showed up._

 _Eventually, her blind date finally showed up, 45 minutes late. According to her, his profile stated that he is punctual and professional. However, those reports turned out to be false. And that he turned up because he needed a date to impress his friends. Disgusted, the lady guard walked out, infuriated. So, I caught up with her, not without taking a final gulp of the milkshake._

 _I hollered to her, "Hey lady, wait up!" Wait! Slow down."_

" _Go away. I need moment alone," she replied._

" _Hey! Wait. You don't have to be this devastated."_

" _Okay, why I shouldn't be devastated? I took my job as a crossing guard very seriously so I can back up my special writing classes."_

" _You still study?"_

" _Learning is a lifetime. It's a government program, not like school. So there. I have been dedicated to my job that I excel on it. That's why my colleagues set me up on dates, thinking I am better off taking a break than serving for my town. Do you know how difficult it is?"_

 _I was stunned by what she bolted out. Still, I understood her circumstance. So from this night, I vowed to be sympathetic over the life of that crossing guard, and probably other people as well._

 _Suddenly, she had her heels stuck at the pavement and she accidentally fell on me. I picked her up from there and made her sit on the pavement to budge out her heels._

" _There you go." But her heels suddenly got loose. "I'll get that." I pulled out a superglue out of my pocket and placed it on the sides of the heel to stick it there once more._

" _Wow. You're such a Boy Scout."_

" _I always stuck a superglue on my pocket. Knew I need it handy."_

" _Thanks anyway."_

" _My pleasure." We took a moment sitting by the pavements, thinking how we want our night to turn out. "Look, I know you are stressed. We all are. I tell you what. I will treat out for a corndog. And I can take you home."_

" _A corndog? Is that the best you can do?"_

" _Well, it's better than a wrapped dog or a rapping dog."_

" _Nahh, I promised myself I would never try processed foods, not even corndogs, ever."_

 _Eventually she did. And after some intrusions, we walk to her apartment while she shares about her life._

"… _You know, there's a reason why I joined the traffic patrol group. Needed some exposure in public service. And when the time comes, I could write a novel about that."_

" _Yeah, you could do a story about meter maid who has to prove herself on solving a case about missing animals with her sly sidekick. And throw in lessons about discrimination and stuff like that."_

" _That could be a good story idea."_

" _I doubt it."_

" _Who knows for about the next ten years?"_

 _Finally, we arrived at her apartment. She told she just rents a room. So, we exchanged goodbyes._

" _Well, thanks for taking me here."_

" _Yeah, uhmm, so see you."_

" _Yeah, you too. Hope I don't bump into you again and give you a warning."_

" _I will be trying. If not doing it." As soon as she walked towards the door, I asked this out, "Hey, uhmm, if you're not too busy and if your colleagues aren't too busy bugging you, maybe I can take you out for lunch, or dinner maybe?"_

 _She was too hesitant to answer. It is just a classic to see her this unsure. "I'll see. Just turn up in the same crossing. I'll tell you. Oh, and sorry about your breakup with your girlfriend."_

" _Thanks though. Haven't catch your name by the way."_

" _It's Rita."_

" _Rita."_

" _Well, have a pleasant night Lynn Loud Sr."_

 _With that, she entered her apartment. And I walked home with satisfaction inside. Never knew I needed that to recover from the depression I am feeling. I just felt like smiling after that, never realizing that that will be the start of a very good friendship._

"And that is how I met your mother, kids," Lynn Sr. finally concludes his story to Lola, Lana, Lisa and Lily, who are there for a dinner date this Valentine's Day. "So, what do you think?"

"Can you next time use fewer words than that, dad?" Lana persuades, "It gets longer and longer."

"Sheesh, and I thought journals about advanced logarithm would be longer," Lisa comments.

"I don't care if it's boring or what. I just want to hear mom and dad's love story all over," Lola shares.

"Glad you still like it, Lola," Lynn Sr. utters.

"What did I missed here?" Rita suddenly turns up from behind Lynn Sr.

"Oh honey, I was just wrapping up telling the story of how we met each other."

"Did he told you the part that when we got chased by a dog?" Rita asks her children.

"Never heard that part before," Lana utters.

"Well, we did. And we latched on a fence for about an hour."

"And the dog bit my trousers," Lynn Sr, adds.

With that, Rita pinches her husband's cheeks. "Aww, you sweet thing."

Just seeing this priceless sweet moment from their parents makes the younger sisters say, "Aww…"

"Well, kids, main course is coming. But first, why don't we have chocolate appetizer first?"

Hearing that makes the kids (and Lynn Sr.) exclaim in joy, just to build a wonderful Valentine's night for the Louds.


	2. Laugh Actually

**Note: This is an extension of "Thinking About Luan Loud". So, as a recommendation, I suggest that you go through that story series. But despite that, this is a stand-alone story.**

* * *

On a chilly winter night, where the crescent moon illuminates over Royal Woods, Lincoln is doing the best thing he loves to do on a Friday night – play videogames, of course. With nachos dressed with cheddar cheese and salsa sauce to accompany him, it is a perfect night for him.

Eventually, Luan goes downstairs from her room with Mr. Coconuts on her hand and encounters Lincoln in his leisure time.

Lincoln notices her, and then encourages to join with him. "Hey Luan, wanna play with me? I could really use a companion for this quest."

Then, while operating Mr. Coconuts with her voice, Luan says, " _A companion for your quest, eyy? I have a lot of quest-ions about it._ "

"Come on Luan. It's _Final Fantasy_ _VI_. I really need someone to be my mage," Lincoln persuades.

But Luan still continues her Mr. Coconuts stint, " _What's the matter? The mages went along the way._ "

"Hahaha! Oh, Mr. Coconuts, you're such a funny bone."

" _What do you mean? That wasn't even humerus._ "

"Oh please Mr. Coconuts, you've shown some skel-e-tons on making puns. Hahaha. Get it?"

Annoyed at Luan's expected pun intrusion, as he is hoping for his sister to bond with him, Lincoln pauses the PS3 and asks bluntly, "Are you done annoying me now?"

" _Why I didn't notice you there, player…_ " Luan says in character as Mr. Coconuts.

"Please, don't call me that Luan," Lincoln insists.

" _Why I never hear our sister say such a thing_ ," she pokes fun.

"Well, you're playing out the pun out of me."

" _Ouuuccchh. That pun really hurts; it makes me want to take pun-killers._ "

"Pun-killers?" Lincoln then understands what Luan is doing to him. Being the clever one on dodging his sisters' antics, he thinks of out-punning Mr. Coconuts, in order for Luan to play with him. "Might a recommend an Advil to your head?"

" _Ohh sheesh, that's like liver for every meal_. _And I don't like liver_."

"How an ironic statement. Hehehe. Get it? Well I guess you're a non-be-liver."

" _Don't you dare mix food, health and religion jokes._ "

"Might as well egg roll with it. Hahaha!"

" _I see what you're doing. Wait until I tell Luan about how you're stealing her punchlines_."

"At least I borrow them because they're punny."

" _Awww…right on the guts!_ "

"Did I just throw you off the line with my punches?"

" _No, my head!_ "

"What happened? Did I have you go nuts?"

" _Don't dare use my name in your unholy mockery._ "

"What's wrong? You a coco in the head? Hahaha."

" _That's it Whitey! You had it this time. I will come back for you with more pun-chlines_."

"I suggest you get a boxing trainer. Might I recommend Meghan?"

And just like that, Luan portrays Mr. Coconuts walking away from the scene. She then returns without holding her ventriloquist puppet after placing it aside.

"Lincoln, what did I missed?" Luan asks.

"Oh, uhmm Mr. Coconuts got fed up from puns, so…he walked out," Lincoln says, "But I get to beat him with a set of punchlines, straight to his face."

"Man, that was indeed clever, from what you said," Luan comments.

Then having impressed her with his own set of puns, Lincoln asks, "So, would you like to play _Final Fantasy_ with me?"

Luan knows that Lincoln passed her test of wits. In response, she replies with a grin to her face.

For the whole night, the two Loud siblings finish the whole stage set of _Final Fantasy VI_ for the entire night. None can stop them from being glued to the TV screen and finish every creature they encounter.

As the 9 o'clock mark strikes, a knock comes on the door.

"I'll get that," Lincoln responds.

"No, I'll get it. You find more items," Luan insists before she abandons her controller and approaches the door to answer it. She then opens it to see, to her absolute surprise, Waldo (from the story "Thinking About Luan Loud") carrying a radio player and a set of cue cards.

"Who is that?" Lincoln asks from the living room.

Then Waldo flashes a sign that says, " **Tell him it's just choir singers asking for donation**."

Not knowing what to answer, Luan nonetheless follows what he said. "Uhmm they're just choir singers asking for donation."

"Well, give them a dollar or a fruitcake or something," Lincoln replies, "Hurry up Luan! We have to still battle the boss."

Luan afterwards shifts her attention to Waldo, who is the doing one of the most clichéd gestures that a Hollywood love story-inspired suitor would do. Ironically, he flashes " **I know this is clichéd but this is the best thing I can do.** "

He then switches on the radio, which plays a choral rendition of "God Gave Me You" by Bryan White, and puts down the present card to flash another: " **I have to admit something.** "

Then he flashes another: " **It took me a month to rehearse this.** " Luan giggles at this.

Out comes another card: " **It should take a Skype message for this.** "

Then another card: " **But hey, there are loads of popcorn back home. Might as well go cornier and pop out what I need to say.** " Naturally, Luan chuckles at Waldo's clever use of puns.

Seeing her laugh is sheer delight for Waldo. So, it becomes motivation for him to go along with his plan and flips another card. " **In comedy, I may not be the very best…** "

Then he quickly flashes another card: " **Like this guy ever was.** " This card shows a pasted photo of Sans from _Undertale_ , which Luan takes a laugh at since she relates to the character.

Waldo then flips another card: " **But the best thing I can do is…** "

And he flips this: " **Make you laugh.** " Luan feels touched by what it says, though she replies in the more comedic touched, like watching a clip of whimpering puppy in a funny dogs video compilation.

With that out of the way, Waldo continues another card that says, " **And laugh, and laugh, and laugh** " and ends with an infinite sign.

Then he flashes this cheesy remark: " **Because laugh is all we need.** " In response, Luan laughs at this referencing while trying to cover her mouth from eventual snorts.

Waldo continues flashing. " **It's just your LAUGHS ACTUALLY…** " and then flashes a continuation of that line with " **…shine brighter like the pun.** " Luan cannot stop laughing that she causes to massage her cheeks from feeling delighted of Waldo's subtle, chivalrous gesture.

Continuing with the referencing, the 15-year-old Asian flashes this statement. " **And it had go through your thousand smiles just to ask you tonight…** "

Then finally, Waldo transitions to the next stage where he will ask out Luan to be his prom date for the school's February winter formal. But even still, he is hesitant to go on. His hands begin to tremble from carrying his cue cards. He then flips to another card, " **If…** " His trembling become more evident, feeling the heat of the moment to embrace another moment to ask from the girl of his dreams.

Luan begins to notice Waldo's usual nervousness. "Uhmm Waldo, are you okay?"

Waldo then quickly pulls out a marker and writes on an extra card, "Good" to flash it to the 14-year-old jokester. After that, he flashes: "Are you ready? Nod yes if you are."

Luan then nods bewilderingly so that Waldo can proceed on his true intentions.

Slowly, Waldo flashes a pictogram card instead, showing a picture of an aluminum can for corned beef, a human eye and a woodchuck's axe. This is clearly just to both amuse and confuse Luan more and more, to keep her anticipated for the surprise.

But as Waldo is about to flip the final card, Luan's siblings call her from inside, "Luan!"

"Guys?" she utters.

"Luan, we need your help!" Lincoln enunciates while he and his other sisters try to pull Leni out of the pet door to the backyard. "Leni's stuck on the door!"

"Why did you even literally pass by where Charles passes by?!" Lori interrogates her scatterbrained sister.

"I tried to find him. And I saw him go through this door," Leni explains with her topmost body stuck outside, "So I followed him."

"Great, you are really are a genius, aren't you, Leni!" Lynn reacts complainingly.

"Wait, is that a compliment or a complement? Because I am confused between the two," Leni responds, making her siblings groan more.

"Luan, come here now!" Lincoln calls her again.

Hearing the need from her siblings, Luan says to Waldo, "Hold on Waldo. I'll be back." Just like that, Luan leaves Waldo by the door in the outside cold and goes to assist her siblings. As for Waldo, he quickly picks up the cue cards he flipped to the floor and walks out of the Loud house premises, with the insecurity and introversion motivating him to leave. He is just bothered that he had done something out of his comfort zone that he predicted will be the source of his embarrassment.

But as soon as he heads to the sidewalk pavements, Luan rushes to him. "Waldo wait! Why did you leave? I was just inside there for a second. Turns out they don't need help. Why did you leave so fast?"

Starting with a deep sigh, Waldo says, "I just think saying this will bother you."

"How would I even know if what you'll say will embarrass me if you haven't said it?" Luan retorts, "What is it you're going to say?"

However, Waldo takes more deep breaths, just to remove his insecurity. But in one blurt, he finally asks this: "Can I take you out to the winter formal?"

Hearing this makes Luan more unnerved and uncertain of how she should respond, or what matter she should respond. This is not the first time that she hears Waldo reveal something unexpected or related to romance. But his sudden knock on her house just makes it even awkward for the two.

Upon pondering this, Luan hears commotion from inside, bringing up concern to her. "I better go back," she says, leaving Waldo again and unnoticeably making him dumbfounded. Nevertheless, he walks away disappointed from his failed prom-posal plan. But suddenly, Luan pops up again before she returns to the house, "Waldo, I'll not leave you hanging. If I show up there, that's a yes."

Still, Luan's words leave Waldo confused as to what she means. Yet, he feels secured with her promise: "if I show up there, that's a yes." But even though Luan's promise leaves Waldo with confused signals, Waldo anticipates for the day of the winter formal dance to arrive, whether or not that promise is true.

The day of the winter formal arrives, and every high school student with their partner converges in the auditorium for an all-night dance galore. As for Waldo, he is just seated at the side, sipping on a four season punch in a paper cup and passively listening to contemporary pop music being played in the hall.

His best friend and wingman Ralph walks to him after seeing his worried face. "Hey man, why the long face? It's winter dance. Come on, let's celebrate."

"You go ahead," Waldo insists, "I'll just be here. Shouldn't you be dancing with Lauren?" Waldo is referring to Ralph's current girlfriend Lauren. (Get it?)

"Dude, is this about Luan?" Ralph asks, to which Waldo never responds, meaning he is still despondent from his failure to ask out Luan. "Waldo, I know you failed but you shouldn't let that put you down. Seize every moment. Come on. Get up!"

"No seriously," Waldo is adamant, "I'll go to you guys. I will just finish this drink."

"You for real?"

"Yeah," Waldo answers after he takes a sip on his cup.

"If you say so. I'll be seeing you on the dance floor." With that, Ralph heads back to Lauren and their round of friends who are dancing to "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" by Usher featuring Pitbull.

For now, Waldo resumes to his cloistered self-moping. But as he blankly stares to the enjoying teenage crowd, Mr. Coconuts suddenly pop out in front of him. " _Greetings there laddy_!"

Of course, Waldo gets surprised with the dummy's sudden appearance. "Mr. Coconuts?"

" _Yeah, who else you think? Kermit?_ " the puppet utters, or the clear puppeteer under the black sheet utters.

Waldo suspects this as another work from none other than his jokester friend. "Luan, is that really you?"

" _You ever see Luan right in front of you? Gees, don't be a dummy. And a dummy has to tell you that._ "

The Asian teenager knows it is Luan perpetuating this scheme. But nevertheless, he goes along with the play as of the moment. "Okay…Mr. Coconuts, what brings you here?"

" _Your friend Luan sent me here to give you a certain message. But she wishes to ask you something. Of all the girls you want to bring to the dance, why her?"_

"I just want to dance with the funniest girl of the planet."

" _Isn't Sarah Silverman the funniest girl of the planet?_ "

"Luan can never outmatch Sarah Silverman."

" _Okay, we have Luan. Good. But why you end up being shy about it?"_

"I already embarrassed myself in front of her once. I hate doing it again."

" _But do you think quitting would mean losing her?_ "

"I never thought it that way."

 _"Alright, I'll give you a chance there. If she were here, what would you say to her?_ "

"Indeed, I would say that it is a great pleasure to have a dance with one of the best friends I have. No matter what she looks like, I want to spend this moment with her."

" _Well, she said 'yes'_ "

After that, the comedienne reveals herself from underneath the black sheet about Mr. Coconuts. However, her appearance is different than usual. Right now, she has her hair down, with her locks curled. She has a yellow clip by her left bangs. And for the outfit, she is wearing a yellow cocktail dress with black dots in all sizes and white sandals.

"Luan, you really shine bright like the pun…" Waldo compliments sweetly.

"Man Waldo, I don't what's cheesier: my dress that looks like a cheese or to how you compare me to Sarah Silverman or your pickup line," Luan jokingly asserts.

"Maybe, the way you make Mr. Coconuts say 'yes'," Waldo teases, "He sounds kinda husky. Hehe. Get it? But still, you really shine brighter than a thousand puns."

"So, how will you pick up from here?" Luan replies humorously, "Ran out of fuel from pun making?

Waldo then unexpectedly kisses Luan by the lips to capture such an intimate moment. "So, Luan, is this it?"

But Luan sways to something greater. "Well, you want to dance with me. Come on! Let's dance!" With that, she gladly drags Waldo to the dance floor. And the two spend a great night in the winter formal. It is unclear where the two go from here on their relationship. But one thing is definite: Waldo shuts up and dances.


	3. Girls

Lincoln proceeds to his school with a confident flair and a beam on his face. He is just delighted that after a horrific examination period that took strife for the entire fifth grade, he was able to conduct the entire exams in one clean sweep. He enters his classroom with a prideful look that defines being chill about his academics.

Clyde, who also got embroiled with studying for the exams, notices his attitude and asks him, "You seemed pretty happy. What's the catch? Already seen the sneak peek of the new ARGGH episode?"

"That's the half of it," Lincoln braggingly says, "The other half just puts me in the right mood. Exams no more."

"You do know there is still the deliberation and the grades, right?" Clyde responds.

"I know. But I am sure that I aced it all in one clean swoop," Lincoln replies.

"That's the proud Lincoln talking. Cool moves."

"Definitely."

Just on time, Ms. Johnson enters the class while carrying a load of exam papers encased in folders. "Good morning class! I know it has been a heavy week for you all. But unfortunately, I have to announce that your results in your exams did not turned out well as expected."

The class pouts "Awww…" as a sign of dismay.

"But for your sake, I will not announce the scores in front of class," Ms. Johnson assures, giving a sigh among the students. "However, I will not anyone of you fail. That is my vow as a teacher for the B-section of the fifth grade. So, starting now, I will initiate a student tutorial program. Now what is that, asks one student of mine. Well, I will ask our leading students in class who excelled in each subject to assist those who need to pass their grades. But don't worry, this is not like a professional tutor's job. But it has incentives for both students in the program. So, it's a win-win for all. And now, let me announce our brand new tutors."

"Wow, I wonder who it is going to be," Clyde utters.

"Chill on it, Clyde," Lincoln says, "You might get called."

They then listen to Ms. Johnson's announcement. "Okay, here we go. For English, we have Jordan as your tutor." As her name is announced, Girl Jordan stands up to the applause from her classmates. "For history, Clyde. Clyde will be your tutor."

Upon hearing his name, Clyde stands up to pay gratitude to his classmates who applauding him. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you dear classmates."

"And finally for science and math, Lincoln Loud!"

As he hears his name announced, the class congratulates their classmate, but Lincoln gets wide-eyed shock at this discovery.

"Okay, you may approach your tutors once you received your test papers right here. Look at your results and see if you need improvement. Your second chance for a test will be next month. So good luck!" While Ms. Johnson sees this as an opportunity for her indifferent students to improve, Lincoln gulps in fear of how his title as "tutor for math and science" will change everything.

* * *

After class, he confides his worries to Clyde by the lockers.

"Come on Lincoln. Being a tutor is not that bad," the McBride kid stresses out.

"It's not tutoring the problem, Clyde. I have no problem with helping others in their lessons," Lincoln implies, "I am just unsure if I am the right tutor."

"Don't worry about it buddy," Clyde assures, "I am sure you'll get the hang of it."

Just as they converse, Girl Jordan hurriedly approaches Lincoln. "Hey Lincoln, glad I found you here. My cooking club president asks me for a concrete number of how we can distribute 50 packs of flour to the whole club. I do not know what to give her."

"How many are you in the club?" Lincoln asks.

"Well, 16 of us," Girl Jordan answers.

Then Lincoln deduces with helpful mental math. "Okay, 48 packs of flour for 16 members. That makes 3 packs each, with an excess of 2 packs of flour. Easy as pie."

"Oh, what a relief. Thanks Lincoln! Glad I can count on you." With that, Girl Jordan skips to her destination.

"Told you so, buddy," Clyde reacts.

"Well, I can get used to that," Lincoln replies.

* * *

Later on, Lincoln is at the cafeteria table, solving a Sudoku puzzle, when African-American student Joy pops out from behind him for assistance. "Hey Lincoln, I heard you were assigned as our math tutor. So, I need your help in our homework."

Reluctantly, Lincoln assists Joy. "Uhmm, sure. Where you having a hard time?"

"Oh, just problem solving. Particularly in the part on fractions, where it was given that a quota for the week is $200, and the amount only reached to ¾. How much then must be earned to reach $200?"

"That's a simple one." Lincoln then gets a scratch paper and demonstrates how to solve for the amount. "Okay, to make it easier for you, let us multiply both numbers. Okay, 200 times 3?"

"Uhmmm…600."

"Good. Now, divide it by 4. You have…?"

"I kind of flunked in division."

"I see. Okay, let's go through it step-by-step. 6 divided by 4?"

"I'll take 1?"

"1 it is. Okay, more numbers to eliminate. 6 minus 4 is 2. Drop down the zero. Okay, 20 divided by 4?"

"5!"

"Good. And you have 150 as your answer. Now what is 150?"

"Uhmmm, the amount I reached?"

"Very good Joy! Okay, we 200 as your quota, and 150 as the number you reached. The last step is to subtract the money you earned from the quota. And you have?"

Thinking with a determined stance, Joy utters, "50."

"And there you go, you have $50 left to earn."

"Wow, now that you showed it, I finally get it! Thanks Lincoln!"

"Don't mention it, Joy. Just whenever you need help in math or science, you can count on me!"

"Great! Thanks!" With that, Joy walks away in relief.

Realizing that he assisted a fellow classmate in her homework, Lincoln turns to the readers and shares his thoughts, "My, oh my, did I really say that? Well, two times in a row. What could go wrong from there?"

* * *

Sadly, things will not go on his way as he thought it would be.

Moments go by, as the day ends, Lincoln walks down the school steps when a slight emo classmate named Kat rushes to Lincoln.

"Lincoln, glad I found you. I need help on the chemistry recitation. Can you help me please?!" Kat pleads.

"Uhmmm I guess so…" Lincoln hesitantly utters.

And by that, Kat drags him to her house for tutoring.

The next day, just as Lincoln unloads his stuff to his locker, a brunette classmate named Millie approaches from behind his locker door and predictably asks for his assistance.

"Lincoln, can you help me in our physics exam? I totally failed in our quiz yesterday."

"Failed in physics? I thought you are good in physics?" Lincoln reacts.

"I am. But I just got so bummed out with the study in electricity, also with laws of motion. Can you help me?"

Reluctantly again, Lincoln replies, "Fine, I will help you out, just for once."

"Great! Let's go!" Millie then hurries to the physics laboratory, with Lincoln dragging himself to her direction.

* * *

Later, another need of assistance comes in the form of a brunette named Sadie, who distracts Lincoln from pouring a boiling substance to another test tube.

"Hey Lincoln!" Sadie calls Lincoln, shocking him to drop his test tube. "Sorry, I just need help in using and reading the weighing scale."

Much to his dismay, he nevertheless opens up to his classmate. "Haven't we studied that previously in class?"

"I know but I was absent that day when studied it."

"Hayyyy…okay, let's go." With that, the 11-year-old unwillingly assists Sadie.

* * *

After class, Lincoln lays his head on his desk, bushed from the proceedings of the day. Luckily, Ms. Johnson has not arrived for homeroom. But unfortunately, Jordan approaches him for help.

"Hey Lincoln, sorry if I disturbed you this time," Jordan says.

"Nahh, it's fine. I just need time to chill," Lincoln tiresomely replies.

"Hope it's not a bother to you but I need help in one word problem. Please?"

"Can we do this later? Maybe after homeroom?"

"Come on Lincoln. Please?! I'll do anything in return. I swear."

Hearing that condition, Lincoln catches attention to Jordan's deal. Sharing knowledge in exchange for rewards is worth to take advantage of, since it could lead to a win-win situation between the two parties. So obviously, Lincoln grabs this opportunity.

"Anything, Jordan, you say?"

"Mhmmm. Just help me, please?"

Eventually Lincoln agrees to help Jordan. And later on, in return for the tutoring, Jordan treats Lincoln for ice cream.

"Hey, thanks for all the help," Jordan expresses her gratitude.

"It was nothing. Glad I could be of help," Lincoln replies.

"You know, if you need help in grammar or reading comprehension, you can always approach me."

"Nah, I am good. I actually find English that easy. That's why I get to help my sisters in poetry composition."

"You write poetries?"

"Well, help in writing poetries, specifically."

Learning about this, Jordan approaches closer to Lincoln in a rather subtle romanticized manner. "Tell me how you do it, study buddy."

"Why sure, study buddy," Lincoln utters before the two proceed in an engaging exchange.

* * *

Subsequently, Lincoln goes through the same old routine with the other girls he tutored. Though other classmates approach him for help (mainly because math had the most failures in Lincoln's section), it is Jordan, Joy, Kat, Millie and Sadie who frequently approach him for help.

And just like Jordan, they go through the same pattern; with Joy treating Lincoln to a trip to the fair after he helped in her physics project; with Kat taking Lincoln to the movies after he assisted in her report about Newton's three laws of motion; with Millie being Lincoln's playmate in the arcade after he aided her in math flash cards; and with Sadie bringing him to a hidden geek-themed novelty store after he contributed to her science show-and-tell, using Lin-Manuel Miranda-style rapping.

A week goes by, and he unnoticeably becomes closer to each one of them. It goes without saying that exclusivity is the understatement here, as if Lincoln has not learned his lesson.

* * *

The very next Monday, Lincoln walks towards his classroom with a skip on his feet. That is when Jordan approaches him surprisingly.

"Hey study buddy!" she greets him sweetly.

"Hey there, study buddy!" he greets her back.

"Guess what? I got a perfect 10 in our math quiz!"

"Really? That's great! Kudos to you!"

"Why thank you! So, I was thinking. Later, after school, maybe we can celebrate with a frozen yogurt later. Is that cool?"

"Sure! Would love to!" After that, the two smile at each other, letting that intimate feeling sink in to themselves.

But as that moment passes on to the both of them, Joy just happens to stumble upon them. "Lincoln?!" she shrieks.

"Uhmm Joy?" he utters.

"And Jordan, what are you doing with my study buddy?" Joy berates.

"Your study buddy?! He's my study buddy," Jordan justifies, making Lincoln more tensed.

But suddenly, Kat overhears this argument and joins in. "Who says Lincoln is their study buddy? Because I am Lincoln's true study buddy!"

"Kat?!"

Unexpectedly, Millie bumps into them and argues, "Nope I am Lincoln's true study buddy!"

"Millie?!"

And finally, Sadie notices the racket and throws in her defense, "All of these are fake news because I am Lincoln's true study buddy!"

"Sadie?! Ugh, now this is getting political?!"

Obviously, with this intersecting arguments, the girls berate at each other as to who is truly faithful to Lincoln.

Jordan firmly attests, "All of you are wrong because Lincoln knows that I am his true study buddy. Right Lincoln?" But when she asks for his support, the girls notice that Lincoln has fled away from them.

The latter then retreats behind the bleachers and phones Clyde. After attempting to dial to him numerous times, Clyde eventually answers. "Hello?"

"Clyde, thank goodness! We have a problem! Code palette!" Lincoln bolts out.

"Code palette? Oh no buddy, you did not," Clyde replies solemnly.

"I don't know Clyde! They insisted! I helped but they kept relying on me!"

"That's gonna be hard to solve."

"That's why I need your help pronto!"

"I would be willing to, buddy. Unfortunately, I am in the middle of tutoring Haiku here. Sorry about that."

"Ughhh Clyde?!"

"Really sorry buddy. Why don't you ask Ronnie Anne about this? She would be willing to, as your girlfriend."

"You're right! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Glad I can be of help, buddy. Well, got to go." As Clyde hangs up, he returns to tutoring Haiku about the structure of the government.

"Who was that?" Haiku asks.

"Oh, that was Lincoln needing help. But I now gave him a solution," Clyde answers. "Now, where were we?"

"You were commenting of how our current government works and how all of it is in shambles are right now?"

"Exactly."

* * *

Back to Lincoln as Clyde hangs up, he instantly dials to Ronnie Anne's number. However, he only receives an automatic voice mail. " _Hello, this is Ronnie Anne. Sorry, I am currently in an important engagement. If this is something important, please leave a message. And if not, hang up right now or I'll punch you in the face, if I recognize this voice._ "

"Oh no!" Lincoln then dials to an emergency number, which is an alternative in situations like this. "Hello? DP! I am on the hot seat right now! Five girls asked me to become their study buddy. And I did. And they're coming on to me! What should I do?"

Clearly, Lincoln dialed to his fellow victim, Dipper Pines. The 13-year-old then answers, "Haven't we been here twice already? Lincoln, you gotta take the fall for this act."

"But I cannot let all of them down by really helping them."

"Then you should have look at it clearly." Dipper then hangs up to Lincoln.

Eventually, the troubled Lincoln gets spotted by the girls.

"Hey, there's Lincoln!" Joy exclaims, making Lincoln retreat towards the classroom and out of the window and for the five girls to give chase.

Lincoln eventually hides in the bushes for his safety. He then shares his thoughts to the readers, "Might as well hide here till the last period? I never want to show my face to anyone again!"

However, Rusty overhears him. "Lincoln, what are you doing moping in the bushes?"

Lincoln then takes him by his collar and persuades him alarmingly, "Rusty, please pretend you don't see me here. Please! For Pete's sake! And don't tell Jordan, Joy, Kat, Millie or Sadie that I was here, okay?!"

"Hold up, what's hustle Lincoln?" Rusty asks.

"Please Rusty! I will tell you everything later, okay?"

"Okay, okay Lincoln. Chill. I swear I won't tell anyone I saw you."

"Good."

"What's your next move now?"

"Probably, I'll go home."

* * *

That is exactly what Lincoln did.

As Lincoln retreats to Loud House, he blocks the door by nailing it with two planks of wood.

"That will surely keep me safe here," Lincoln says to himself.

"What you doing bro?" someone utters, which scares Lincoln, only to see Lynn behind him.

"Lynn, don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, just saw you block the door like a crazy cartoon character. What is going on?!"

"It is a long story."

Lynn looks through this with suspicious. Though, she passes this off like something pointless. "Hmmm okay. Anyway, has Lisa returned yet?"

"Nope, I thought she is gonna take a whole day at the campus fair."

"Oh dang it! I really need help in my math homework right now."

"No! Don't say math!"

"Uhhhhh are you really okay bro?"

"Uhmmm I mean why say no to math! Hehehe, I can help with you that."

"You sure? Because this is seventh grade algebra."

"I will try my best."

* * *

With that, Lincoln willingly tutors Lynn on algebra with the help of sports analogy.

"…And just as number 2 skip the hurdle, number 2 has negative results from the fall. Thus, number 10 must aid number 2. And that's why, to aid number 2, 10 has to give 8 life support. So, 8 is x. Got it?" Lincoln explains to his sister.

"Trying to pick up the pieces but yeah. I might get it someday," Lynn replies, which gives a frown to Lincoln.

Suddenly, the doorbell rings.

"I'll get that," Lynn says. She then walks to the door and peeks at the peep hole to see none other than Jordan, Joy, Kat, Millie and Sadie outside.

"Hello, is Lincoln in there?" Jordan asks.

Recognizing Jordan's voice, Lincoln hides behind the coach in sheer cowardice.

Lynn then utters, "Lincoln? He's…"

But Lincoln suddenly signals Lynn not to tell of his presence.

"We know Lincoln's in there," Joy articulates, "His friend told us he's here!" Joy is referring to Rusty, whom they saw cannot keep a secret as big as Lincoln's location. Hearing this, Lincoln facepalms.

"Come out, wherever he is! He owes us for being his study buddies,"

"Let me check on that." Lynn then walks towards her brother and drags him to her room. "Okay brother, care to explain?"

With no other option, Lincoln shares his situation to Lynn, "It's a long story."

"Better make it short because you have your 'study buddies' outside!"

"Yes, they are my study buddies because Ms. Johnson assigned me as a tutor, just because I have high grades. So, those girls approached me. And...they really liked me."

"They like you for helping them in their grades," Lynn retorts.

"And yet, I took advantage of it, exchanging my knowledge for being their study buddies."

"Lincoln, may I ask? Have you thought this through?"

Lincoln then nods 'no'. "I just feel like helping them."

"Lincoln, this is like how a jerk acts, confused as to who he should love. I know you're not a jerk. You have a girlfriend. You should not be this way!"

"What then should I do?"

"You should have not crossed the line."

This keeps the guilt heavier for Lincoln, just realizing how this is no way a man should act. He then utters heavily, "I am sorry."

Emphatically, Lynn reaches out, "Look, Lincoln, I understand what you're going through. But's hard to please every person. You can't always please everyone as if that's your mission in life. Yet, you can be a good man to all. I believe in you, for what you are, even though you're basically a wimp. Still love it." She then rubs her brother's hair as a gesture of sibling love.

"Thanks Lynn, but I am not sure that's enough to solve my dilemma now."

"Then you have no choice."

Lincoln then confides in the harsh task of admitting his mistake to five girls. "Will you be there with me?"

"Will be behind you bro."

At that assurance, Lincoln then marches to the door and confronts his girl classmates, who are displeased at his actions. "Hey, look guys, I am sorry for taking advantage of you all and hurting your feelings if I did. I admit I feel so secured when I get to help you and bond with you. So..."

"Nope, not another word Lincoln," Jordan insists. "I and the girls talked about this after learning of what you did to all of us."

"But we have to admit that you actually helped us," Joy adds.

"Yeah, we're thankful that a guy like you would do such a thing for us," Kat follows along.

"Though still you hurt our feelings. But it's kind of our fault too for relying on you too much," Millie says her defense.

"Yeah, we are really grateful for you being there," Sadie agrees.

"Though yeah, you had us caught up on you," Jordan concludes.

"Yeah, and sorry for that," Lincoln expresses his apology.

"We forgive you. You've done it anyway to help us. It's okay," Jordan replies, "And it's best if we all forget that we have feelings for you."

"Yeah, since you and her. Now, we already know," Joy says, referring to Lincoln's relationship with labelled bully Ronnie Anne, as jeeringly implied by Rusty being confronted by the girls.

"He told you?" Lincoln asks, making the girls nod, "Oh Rusty?!"

"Don't worry. We won't tell anyone," Jordan promises, "But you're still our tutor. So, we instead ask a favor from you, if you want our mouths shut from your secret."

"Please, I'll do anything. Promise!"

"And we would forget that Ronnie Anne has Lincoln Loud as her boyfriend," Joy adds.

"Please anything!"

Convinced at Lincoln's pleas, the girls then set for Lincoln to do a task for them.

* * *

At one group study that is styled like a college classroom, filled with fifth grade girls in their gym attire for a particular reason, Lincoln lectures basic fifth grade mathematics to them, dressed in a toga and a graduation hat. "...And that's how you solve 'x'."

A mechanical timer then beeps, signalling for the 11-year-old to transition to the next part of the program.

"It's time Lincoln," Lynn, who is also in the crowd of girls, reminds him.

A tensed Lincoln then looks at the crowd of girls, who are paying their time, just to be in the program. Realizing this, he gets motivated. "Oh well..." With that, Lincoln surprisingly throws his hat and removes his toga, which actually covers up his silly jogging attire (sweatband and sweat shorts and all), initiating the girls to scream and start the impromptu workout session.

"Okay girls, ready?" Lincoln nervously asks.

"Ready!" the girls utter.

Lincoln then notices his five classmates who dragged him to this spectacle. And along them are girls whom he truly recognizes: Cristina (his former crush) and Lena (from "The Other House"). In response, he gulps in fear. But as a conclusion, he addresses to the audience, "Well, you cannot always have it all your way. But let it be known, that this should not stop you from showing your love." He then proceeds to the workout session.


	4. Carried Away

**Disclaimer: This is part songfic, inspired by the song "Carried Away" by Passion Pit and its accompanying music video. It is one of the most relateable music videos I have seen, even though I have less experience in an actual romantic relationship. But to give it justice, I do not own the song or the music video. I do not also own _Romeo and Juliet_ or any Shakespeare play.**

* * *

It is class time for Lincoln and company. Currently, they are in their English period where Mrs. Agnes Johnson reads to her class one of the most popular romance tales of history, _Romeo & Juliet_. Clearly romantic, according to the hopeless teacher. But digressing, Mrs. Johnson reaches to the famous balcony scene and reads this excerpt.

" _O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?_

 _Deny thy father and refuse thy name;_

 _Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,_

 _And I'll no longer be a Capulet."_

With such deep English pronunciation, the class starts to get bored. Even Rusty even reacts at the events with a timely line: "Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"

But, ignorant, Mrs. Johnson continues to speak.

" _'Tis but thy name that is my enemy:_

 _Thou art thyself, though not a Montague._

 _What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,_

 _Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part_

 _Belonging to a man. O, be some other name._

 _What's in a name? That which we call a rose_

 _By any other name would smell as sweet;_

 _So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,_

 _Retain that dear perfection which he owes_

 _Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,_

 _And for that name, which is no part of thee,_

 _Take all myself."_

While the other students tire from hearing Shakespeare's profound words, surprisingly including Clyde who rolls his pencil around his desk but subsequently uses it to draw and illustration of him and Lori, Lincoln feels mesmerized at every romantic dictated, which has him staring hopelessly and daydreaming suddenly. With butterflies in his stomach fluttering around, he imagines himself in the ideal romance; of wooing a girl successfully, asking her for her hand in marriage, hearing her say "yes", having the perfect wedding where all of his loved ones gather to witness such a beautiful romance, travelling around the world for their honeymoon and raising a wonderful family, with children of 3.

"Wouldn't it be fun to have a romance like that?" he utters.

"You mean falling in love with a girl from an enemy family and having to fight for your love, even though you both die?" Clyde replies while drawing.

"Well, except the dying part, but yes," Lincoln emphasizes.

"Yeah, me and Lori might face the same fate, but our love is worth dying for," Clyde responds.

"I am telling you, there's no better romance than that."

But someone abruptly butts in to their discussion, "Yeah, but it needs more blood." Lincoln turns to the person, who turns out to be his secret girlfriend Ronnie Anne Santiago who was recently transferred to Lincoln's class for remedial purposes.

"Uhmmm why would you think of that?" Lincoln hesitantly asks.

"'Cause you know, blood means passion. So, more blood, more passion," Ronnie Anne replies, "If it is like you want more blood pumping inside."

"Yeah, right…"

"Just playing with you Lincoln. It's not like you want that kind of thing anyway."

Hearing that forces Lincoln to reiterate of his kindred relationship to Ronnie Anne. "What do you mean 'it's not like you want that kind of thing anyway?'"

"You know, the smooching, the hugs, the romance, the weddings, that stuff."

"Are you saying that I don't like those stuff?"

"Well, no. Not generally. I mean stuff for us."

"Oh, so you think I would not expect those cheesy stuff in our relationship, huh?"

"Come on Lincoln. You know me."

"Then, what is this 'commitment' you are asking for?"

"I thought we are just cool friends who hang out and trash talking about my brother and your sister."

Lincoln then raises his voice louder that everyone else can hear them arguing. "So, you think being friends throwing a meat sub in my butt is about friends?"

"What are you expecting?!"

"At least, I can expect even a tiniest hint that you are actually serious about being in a relationship."

Clyde tries to stop them. "Guys, can you keep your voices down? Everyone can hear you." But he goes to no avail.

"What would you think of that?"

"Why would you even pick on me to make me think that you actually liked me?"

"Why would even expect a lot from me, if I keep on picking you?"

"Why would you even like me in the first place?!"

"Why would you even fall for me after I fall for you?!"

Mrs. Johnson overhears their argument and stops reading the excerpt to call out their attention. "Okay, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, what's going on with you two?"

Then, in unison, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne attest, "He/She started it! I was just minding my own business until he/she has to ruin everything because of his/her corny views about love, as if I care on wanting a relationship with him/her, but no. So, I don't know why do I even bother or why he/she even have to bother on even liking him/her because I don't like him/her!"

Everyone is just at total shock of the defense, made in prefect harmony by two people who are the unlikeliest to form a connection. The entire class goes "Ooohh", while Mrs. Johnson is left astounded at what became of the two.

"Wow. The timeless mystery of love," Rusty reacts.

The two hear this and simultaneously deny that claim, "We are not in love!" They then hear themselves having the same words to each other. "Stop repeating what I say! No, you stop! I said stop! Stop mimicking what I say as if we're a couple!"

"Man, you two sure meant for each other," Liam comments to them. "That you both dragged yourselves to a jinx."

"We're not meant for each other!" Lincoln and Ronnie Anne continue to deny unintentionally simultaneously. "Jinx? Double jinx? Triple jinx? Quadruple jinx?!"

Having enough, Mrs. Johnson silences the two. "Okay, Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, stop this right now!"

"But he/she started it!"

"I don't care who started it, children," Mrs. Johnson reasons out, "I just don't want any of my students bickering in the classroom like a bunch of confused millennials who had nothing in mind but romance." But just hearing her unintentional comment on the older generation makes the class feel stunned at their teacher for saying that. Nevertheless, Mrs. Johnson continues, "But, since I am a fair teacher and we get to discuss a piece of literature I liked as a blooming student, faithful for true love (just like previously, the class gets stunned and wide-eyed at their teacher's words), I will not lead you both in detention. Instead, I have something better in mind, to make you both learn a lesson."

Both Lincoln and Ronnie Anne gulp at the prospect of what comeuppance they can get from their argument. Fortunately, Mrs. Johnson just has them stand at each corner of the room and face the wall, while she continues on reading the _Romeo and Juliet_ excerpt.

" _By a name_

 _I know not how to tell thee who I am:_

 _My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,_

 _Because it is an enemy to thee._

 _Had I it written, I would tear the word."_

As the class returns to listening mode, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne grumble to each other of their circumstance. Even as they face the wall, they exchange cold expressions at each other, but snob one another when they make eye contact.

"Hmph, why would that troll face judge me like that?" Lincoln berates to himself.

Simultaneously, Ronnie Anne mumbles complainingly, "Why would that dumb-o lame-o have to ruin the moment?"

"Why would even bother if she tucked a beef jerky sandwich on my pants to say that she likes me?"

"Why would even bother if he kissed me right in front of everyone in Jean Juan's French-Mex Resto?"

"Why do I even like her?!"

"Why do I even like him?!"

But after they let out those grumbling, they brush it off as annoyance. But slowly, as Mrs. Johnson's voice becomes the only voice heard in the room, Lincoln ponders on his relationship with Ronnie Anne. But initially, it was more of an intimate understanding of their platonic connection. This time, he inhibits a deeper understanding of what his relationship with Ronnie Anne really meant to him, if it connotes to "true love".

With that, he slowly daydreams what it would be like if Ronnie Anne was his true love and his lifelong wife, accompanied with a fitting song to describe that relationship – "Carried Away" by Passion Pit.

* * *

 _Twenty years from now…_

 _Lincoln and Ronnie Anne are doing their last minute preparations for a dinner; Lincoln is brushing his teeth while Ronnie Anne is putting on her lipstick. As normal as it goes, Lincoln suddenly nudges Ronnie Anne, making the latter glide her makeup to her face unnoticeably. Never it pondered for Ronnie Anne that her face was scribbled with red lipstick, just a mark of how rocky their relationship went._

 _During the dinner, everything goes fine as the couple dines with Clyde and Lynn, whom Lincoln imagines to be the girl that Clyde would marry. But Ronnie Anne acts silly with her exaggerated ramblings of her current state of her relationship with Lincoln, like strolling with him on a river filled with magma and laughing out loud in a funeral. This causes Lincoln to feel embarrassed, especially when her tone shifts to ranting._

 _After that, Ronnie Anne throws her blazer to the floor while Lincoln apologizes to Clyde (with a hint of denial), "I am sorry. She's not always like this, at least ever."_

 _Nonetheless, Clyde accepts. "It's okay."_

 _Because of this, Ronnie Anne charges to Lincoln. But even with this sudden burst of emotion, that would not compare to their bed session they have days after._

 _Since my heart is golden_

 _I've got sense to hold in_

 _Tempted just to make an ugly scene_

 _No I'm not as proper_

 _My money's in copper_

 _Ripped down from the brownstones to the street_

 _Mornings after, Ronnie Anne shows up to Lincoln outside on the patio and reveals to him that she is pregnant. "It is yours," she utters, leaving Lincoln disbelief and stopping from reading his morning paper. Though, Ronnie Anne acts unserious about this and laughs this off to their bed, simply forgetful of their worries._

 _Later that day, the couple take a walk in their village when they come across an abandoned cat. Feeling sorry, Ronnie Anne takes it by her arms but Lincoln refuses to keep it._

 _"Please, not this again. Let go off him," he says pleadingly._

 _But Ronnie Anne insists, "He needs a home." With that, they keep the cat. Though Lincoln ponders of Ronnie Anne's out-of-the-blue behavior, particularly with her idea of taking in a street cat._

 _Listen, I'm your friend, don't quote me_

 _But not a friend worth noting_

 _Yes, please don't ever note me as your friend_

 _Predictably, the cat causes havoc in the Loud residence. The husband and wife try to catch it as it sneaks inside the sofa cushions and scratches its way in. Their attempt causes for them to tear the cushions apart until it loses its foam. Because of this, Lincoln grows more animosity to his wife._

 _Who says we have cold hearts?_

 _Acting out our old parts_

 _Dance before my favorite little scene_

 _Days later, Lincoln lets Ronnie Anne cut his hair on their patio. This proves Lincoln to comment about his wife's bizarre behavior, much to Ronnie Anne's resentment._

 _"I mean no offense," he disclaims, to which Ronnie Anne reacts by faking a stab to his head with the hair shears._

 _That night, Lincoln ponders his mistake on bed and is convinced to initiate forgiveness to his wife. But their rift is so malignant that (figurative and literal) inferno is keeping them apart. Thus, he vows to do his best to reconcile with her._

 _I get carried away, carried away, from you_

 _When I'm open and afraid_

 _'Cause I'm sorry, sorry 'bout that_

 _Sorry 'bout things that I've said_

 _Always let it get in my way_

 _He does every over-the-top attempt to reconcile with Ronnie Anne, like taking her for a stroll in the park while he sings "All Out of Love" by Air Supply, faking pouring rain with a garden hose to make the apology more dramatic and even using smoke clouds to form the word "Sorry". Even with how out-of-place they are, Ronnie Anne passes them of as nothing. Yet, she forgets how heavy Lincoln's mistakes were._

 _But still, she continues to act out-of-place and keeps indulging herself with fun, even during a get-together cocktail party where she converses freely to the men there. Lincoln is able to stop this and (figuratively and literally) throws some of the men she spoke to outside. From there, he becomes more controlling._

 _All your appeal, once again we'd feel_

 _Higher education making sense_

 _Justify your thesis, certain that you need this_

 _Tell me what your point is in defense_

 _Days go by, and Ronnie Anne feels resentment for Lincoln being a control freak. Though, that is not surprising as he even forces her to wear his own set of clothes for her, much to her dismay. With that, she becomes totally infuriated at him._

 _"Are you still mad?" Lincoln asks, "I was just doing this for us."_

 _Lincoln's horrendous defense triggers Ronnie Anne to plan on ridding of Lincoln. She readies herself by proposing her plan to her friends, knocking down some stuff, learning self-defense and lashing out her feelings in a game app on her tablet._

 _Listen, I don't really know you_

 _And I don't think I want to_

 _But I think I can fake it if you can_

 _Lincoln notices Ronnie Anne's resentment, which reminds him of her bullying antics in elementary. Because of that, he wishes to himself that he could vanish from her eyes (figuratively and literally)._

 _Let's agree there's no need, no more talk of money_

 _Let's just keep pretending to be friends_

 _One night, Ronnie Anne then takes her frustrations to Lincoln, culminating on her throwing a flower vase to him, which he dodges. But unexpectedly, Lincoln's weak pleads causes her to reminisce how fun it is to pester a clueless Lincoln back at elementary. With that, she forgets about her demeanor to Lincoln, and they have another moment in bed. Nights go by, and they go back to same old cycle, from their happy night to their marriage ranting, and keep pondering subtly of why their relationship went this rocky._

 _I get carried away, carried away, from you_

 _When I'm open and afraid_

 _'Cause I'm sorry, sorry 'bout that_

 _Sorry 'bout things that I've said_

 _Always let it get in my way_

 _Speaking of the same cycle, Lincoln again initiates on resolving matters with his wife. He even tries to drag her out of the bed (figuratively and literally). Still, Ronnie Anne remains stubborn and furious to him, but fun and outspoken to her friends. But with just reminiscing past happy memories, like them having a dance galore in Gus' Games and Grub on the night of the Sally Hawkins' Dance, they instantly reconcile and culminate on a session at bed. And the same cycle goes on and on, with different ways to._

 _Wake up in the morning_

 _Wake up in the evening_

 _Wake up when you want to_

 _'Cause no one's really watching_

 _Wish you had something to say about it_

 _But we all have problems_

 _We're all having problems_

 _And we all got something to say_

 _Until one night, Ronnie Anne blurts all her hidden feelings to Lincoln. "Well, if you're so miserable, why don't you leave?" she attests. It is clear that the resentment she pondered about their marriage gone out of her nerves._

 _But shockingly, Lincoln replies passively, "You make me sick."_

 _Just those four words alone marks heavily for Ronnie Anne. Just four words stun Mrs. Loud._

 _Realizing this, still with a passive attitude, Lincoln takes it back. "I am sorry." Lincoln's words feel so insincere that they just (figuratively and literally) fall off from Ronnie Anne's ears. As for her, she still carries the weight from the four words her husband said previously._

 _From there, more resenting words start to pop out (figuratively and literally) of their house. As they start to encroach and grow, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne run to the living room to see more words popping out of every object, each word reflecting on the resenting thoughts they have to each other._

 _I get carried away, carried away, from you_

 _When I'm open and afraid_

 _'Cause I'm sorry, sorry 'bout that_

 _Sorry 'bout things that I've said_

 _Always let it get in my way_

 _With no other option, they turn to each other and decide to cooperate by smashing word by word. Some words strike to them (any way you imagine it); Lincoln notices the phrases "Lame-o husband" and "Ca" as insults from Ronnie Anne; and Ronnie Anne spots the words "Raised by trolls" and "Aggravatingly rude" to be several of Lincoln's resentments to her. But as a last ditch to save their marriage, they smash those words one by one, until they crowd the entire house. Even as several moments of their ups and downs hinder them from stopping those words, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne do their best to smash them all._

 _I get carried away, carried away, from you_

 _When I'm open and afraid_

 _'Cause I'm sorry, sorry 'bout that_

 _Sorry 'bout things that I've said_

 _Always let it get in my way_

 _Feeling physically tired, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne lay by the floor as the words continue to pop out and float around the house. He then remembers the moment he used smoke clouds to say "Sorry" to her; Ronnie Anne then shows him some smoke cloud that says "OK", as her passive response to his apology. If that does not daunt imperfection of marriage for Lincoln, he has soon felt it. But even with the harsh times, Ronnie Anne rests on her husband's shoulder as Lincoln tries to forget about the nostalgic past and ponders of the outcome of their estranged marriage. Now, he knows why love is being fought for._

* * *

 _Back to the present time..._

Just as Lincoln finishes his daydreaming, the school brings, indicating the end of class and the end of Mrs. Johnson reciting the _Romeo and Juliet_ excerpt.

"Okay class, we'll continue our discussion about Shakespeare next time with Hamlet. I hear that you're so interested in this. I am too," Mrs. Johnson announces to the class, "And Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, if I see you two fight again, I'll have you report about _Romeo and Juliet_."

With that warning in mind, the two leave the room with grossness on their faces.

Before they part ways, Lincoln calls out to his girlfriend, "Ronnie Anne, I am the jerk. I am sorry for what happened."

Right now, Ronnie Anne still reflects of how she sees her relationship with Lincoln during and after their argument. Her uncertainty is pretty much reasonable since they argued about their perceptions in love. But one thing is clear: their puppy love relationship is weak.

Because of that, she utters this, "Lincoln, I think we need to stay away from each other from now."

"Ronnie Anne...?" Lincoln utters as he attempts to reach out her hand. But she lets go off his hand and walks away sulkily. "I am sorry..."

And from there, Lincoln falls to his knees, thinking this might mark as the end of his relationship with Ronnie Anne. But little he knows that Ronnie Anne actually imagined the same daydream he had a while ago, and remained speechless from it. Clearly, these are two souls who are still clueless about love.


	5. Loud Family Values

On a blistery night in Royal Woods, where it is almost like Halloween with the foggy atmosphere, the spooky sky and the eerie surroundings, a young boy named Rocky Spokes proceeds to the Loud house with a flashlight, a candlestick, a photo album, a piece of plastic tulip and a matchbox. He knocks on the door, for Lincoln to answer it.

"Oh, Rocky, what brings you here?" Lincoln asks him.

"Hey! Is Lucy here? We promised to hang out tonight," Rocky says.

"What are you two gonna do?"

"Something…really spooky."

"Oh, I'm all in for spooky stuff."

"This is more of our stuff. Sorry about it, Lincoln."

"Well, if you say so."

"Needing me?" Lucy then creeps up from behind and utters, scaring Lincoln in the process.

"Lucy, will you tone down with your sudden teleportation thingamajigs?" Lincoln insists., with Rocky smirking from behind.

"Tell that to the spirits of Monte Cristo, and they will be at peace." She then turns her attention to Rocky. "Hey Rocky, ready to go?"

"Oh, I'm definitely ready," Rocky responds.

Lincoln then notices the stuff that Rocky had with him. "Wait, why do you have a flashlight and a candle with you? Are you sure you need them both?"

"Like I said, it's all more about our stuff, Lincoln," Rocky clarifies, "But you don't need to worry about anything."

"Well, again, if you say so yourself," Lincoln pronounces, as Rocky and Lucy set off. "Just make sure be back here before 10."

"Oh, we will."

"And be careful!"

Somehow, Lucy snickers at this warning. But she straightens her point to her body upon leaving. "He should be the one who is careful."

"Who? Rocky?"

"Indeed, night will fall. And so does darkness," she grins with a sort of evil tone. And to make it even subtler, gothic music starts to play and a lightning strikes with eeriness on its background. Even with the evil snicker, Lucy instantly shifts back to normal. "But don't worry. Rocky will have a good night."

After that sudden display of Lucy, Lincoln turns to the readers with a flaccid look on his face. "You know Lucy. She can be very unpredictable. I wouldn't be surprised if she morphs into a bat."

* * *

Back at Lucy and Rocky, Rocky planned for a stroll in Royal Woods' most notorious cemetery, the Onivas Cemetery, where a lot of urban legends circulate from those who are buried there. Most of the deceased range from criminals to people with zero background checks. Lucy also happens to visit cemetery in attempt to endorse peace among the disturbed spirits. Naturally, the fright fanatic Rocky asks her to accompany him in his search for a relative.

Then there they are, sauntering on the misty grounds of the Onivas Cemetery. With hoots littered around, winds getting chilled and spiders crawling from beneath, this is truly the last place that anyone would want to walk through for the evening.

"I didn't know you used to hang out here," Rocky addresses to Lucy.

"I visit this place with purpose," Lucy clarifies, "I don't want to disrespect the souls and summon them out of fun. They deserve better."

"So…you come here…to provide peace? That it?"

"It is better than eternal haunting."

"Fair enough. But this place ain't so spooky."

"I'm not sure you should be sure on that."

"Trust me, I survived watching all _Paranormal Activity_ movies in a row. I think I can handle this."

"Sure you're in?"

"Oh, I'm in for this! I ain't afraid of no ghosts."

"Good."

As the two go deeper in the cemetery, Lucy begins to wonder to Rocky, "So, since you asked me to accompany you, why interested in her?"

Rocky immediately answers, "She was a babysitter of mine. She used to take care of me and Rusty when we were little. She always comes to our house with her blueberry tarts and her boardgames. I used to remember learning how to play Monopoly from her."

"That seems…what was that word?...fun…"

"Yeah, she was all fun. That's why I liked her."

"Did you know that she tried to kill me and my family?" the 8-year-old emo points out.

"I never heard of that news before. I thought she was nice," Rocky says.

"Well, you'll see," Lucy smirks at this, "Something beautiful." From that moment, she began to recall her (and her family's) experience with the babysitter that Rocky is talking about, Scarlett Oak.

Back in the days when Lucy was still 4 (around 2012), Scarlett was a cheery 18-year-old girl, who was adored by her peers and family. She was an outgoing senior at that time, but she never staged any plans for college. She was working part-time as a babysitter for various families in Lincoln's neighborhood (including that of Rusty and Rocky) to cope up with her education fees. As seen from the public eye, Scarlett was generally friendly, generous, helpful and courteous to all. No wonder that she was labelled as "every boy's dream girl". That was until Lucy (and sooner her brother and her sisters) uncovered a terrible truth, hidden surrounding her, her family and her clients.

One evening, while her parents were away for vacation, her five older sisters were in summer camp and her twin sisters were placed under the care of Aunt Ruth, Lucy sneaks to the kitchen to overhear Scarlett plotting a murder to her family. It turns out that Scarlett was also responsible for the deaths of her parents and her two past boyfriends, which she all framed them up to make her look like the victim. Lucy alerted her family at the last minute, before she was caught by Scarlett herself.

As the entire family converged to the house, Scarlett trapped them and had them strapped to electric chairs. She confessed that she did those murders under materialistic intents; her murder to her parents was under contempt for them not answering to her demands because of their conservative and simplistic nature; her murder to her first boyfriend was because of his ignorant nature; and her murder to her second boyfriend was because of his conservative views of relationships, which she found annoying.

Scarlett then stupidly reveals of her intent to stage an arson committed by Lynn Sr. and "rescue" baby Lisa to show her off to the press and the public for mass appeal. However, her plans were thwarted by Lucy who slipped out from her chair. She got electrocuted from setting the power to the electric chairs, causing her to go berserk and fall off from a window.

Days later, she was pronounced dead by the Loud family's alibi of a house appliance accident. They also have a cousin of Rita's to dispatch the electric chairs for them. After that, the Louds never spoke of the incident ever to anyone, not wanting to dismay her admirers who still see her as a role model, even though some people have grown negative perceptions of her.

Thus, Rocky intends to find her burial site, which he thought was placed in an elegant in honor for her name. And finally, he and Lucy spot the site of Scarlett. Her stone tablet has this engraving: "Scarlett Joanne Oak: A girl with a heart as blush as her name".

"Here it is, the belly of the beast," Lucy dictates, "As you demanded."

"Lucy, you shouldn't be saying that to the nicest girl in the planet," Rocky insists.

"For you, yes. For us, no. She would feel the happiest when she babysat us to death"

"Well, if you have any problems with her, that's all in the past. She deserves some honor."

"Suit yourself." Lucy then smirks at how this will all end.

With that, he lights up a candle on the tablet, lays the tulip on it and pulls out a photo of him and Scarlett. "You are great one, Scarlett. I haven't got the guts to say how much I like you. I guess that's not new since everybody likes you. But I wanna say that you are a great person. And I like you for that," he pronounces.

But Lucy counters with her side comment, "Yeah, great in tormenting souls, so her soul will feel great."

Though he continues, "I don't care what other people say. Or even what Lucy says about you, even though I like her. I would never forget those times you babysat me. You're still the best. I just hope I can see your beautiful face and admit that to you."

And just out of nowhere, until the darkest night under a misty sight, an undead arm erupts from Scarlett's grave and takes Rocky by the leg. The innocent young boy screams like he never screams before. He tries to swing his leg, for the arm to let go off him. But it literally drags him to the ground.

Somehow, though not surprising, Lucy watches this with delight on seeing her new "friend" screaming and getting dragged by a zombie. "So beautiful," she smirks evilly.

 _Cue first chords of the "Addams Family" theme music._


	6. All About My Mother

After such a hectic Sunday, Rita Loud drops to the couch at their living room. The Loud family matriarch volunteered for a feeding program for single parents, initiated by the dental clinic. Thus, she spent the day handing out soup and bread, partaking in activities and promos, distributing freebies and consoling to each participant. It was an all-day charity event that really drained out Rita for the day. She could have used the time to spend with the Louds, but she pleaded to do something different yet openhanded for her life. This she did, even though it caused her exhaustion.

"Goodness, what a day," she exhaustedly spouts, "Glad we didn't go on with the outdoor games. Or that would have been a day. If only a cold drink would do…"

"As you wish, madam," a voice calls to her. She turns to see her Lincoln in his butler outfit and handing her a glass of ice cold lemonade. "Lemonade, complements of his precious, Mrs. Loud."

"Lincoln? What are you wearing?" Mrs. Loud asks with a snicker.

"It's Lincolnton, madam," Lincoln answers politely, "I shall be your butler, for the day."

"Lincolnton, eyy?"

He then nods. "Anymore service may I be of help?"

After pondering, Rita decides to play along with Lincoln's gimmick, knowing that this is a Mother's Day surprise. "Hmmm…well, Lincolnton, I think my day went heavy. So, a back massage might help, unless you are not able to practice reflexology."

With that, Lincoln accepts to offer his mother a back massage. Simply, Rita relaxes by the couch, and her son just presses the back regions that need of relaxation. Generally, her back is quite painful, as it has been also caused by her work and household chores. But when she feels her son's kneading, from her back to her forehead, she feels relieved.

"That's it," Rita reacts in repose, "That's better, son."

"Anywhere else, madam?" he politely asks.

"Just knead the shoulders," she replies, "Oh, and the arms. But it's all fine now."

"I could relax your feet."

"No, it's fine. Just take me to the lounge massage chair. It's all fine."

After that homemade massage therapy session, Lincoln takes his mother to the family massage chair and relaxes her there, by a push of a button. Lincoln also places her feet on a foot massager. As Rita enjoys the rolls from the massage chair, Lincoln offers her a Mother's Day special meal ― composing of a vegetable omelette, Caesar salad, spring chicken, corn muffin, orange fruit and grape juice ― on a tray. He then sets up a fan to make the atmosphere chillier.

"This is more I like it," Rita comments in pampered mode, "Might place this in my bucket list."

"Lincolnton" returns to her. "Already turn off the thermostat to provide you the quality ambiance that the Loud House has in store."

As she finishes munching her food, Rita says, "That's great Lincoln. You don't need to, but thanks."

"Anything for the VIP of the day. That means 'Very Important Preciosity'. Word of the day. Any more that I may be of service?"

"No, it's okay honey," she assures.

"No, I insist," Lincoln asserts, "Let me just peel that orange for you."

"No need, Lincoln...I meant 'Lincolnton'. I can handle this."

"Please madam, a job of a butler is to provide the best of services to keep the house intact and to provide the best services to the house-guests. So, let me cut to the chase, madam," Lincoln says this while peeling of an orange with a knife. As he boasts his rather showy attitude, the 11-year-old butler accidentally slices his finger. And with that painful cut, Lincoln screams at the top of his lungs. "AHHHH!"

Immediately, Rita comes to his aid and carries him to the kitchen to wash off the wound. She then gets a first aid kid to heed of the cut. Of course, as a loving mother, she blows his wound and kisses it before wrapping it with a bandage.

"There. Be careful next time not to look away from what you are cutting," Rita advises him.

"Such a stupid face," Lincoln grumbles to himself.

"Oh, don't say that," she says.

"Sorry mom, if this took your time," he spouts.

"Oh don't say that," she insists, "If there's one true wish I want for Mother's Day, it is to see my family safe and happy. And that's okay for me."

"Really?"

Rita then nods out of expression of her love. "So great that I have you as my son, Lincoln."

Hearing that is music to Lincoln's ears. In gratitude, he embraces her tenderly. And in return, Rita clings on to her son in a tender loving manner. It is another cheesy yet intimate moment for the mother and child. But it would never go tiring for these two.

"Thank you Lincoln. Thank you so much," Rita expresses adoringly.

"Anytime mom," Lincoln replies, "Well, I have to. It's your special day. You know what they say, 'behind every successful man is a woman'. So, I like to dedicate this to you."

From that rather heartwarming message to her, Rita kisses her son by the forehead and embraces her son again. "I love you, Lincoln."

"I love you too, mom," Lincoln replies. Then the two return to their warm embrace.

Moments go by, Lincoln decides to go with program, "Mom, we are not done yet with the itinerary. We still have zumba session, a walk on the Loud family cross stitching gallery?...and live cooking of gumbo, featuring me, dad and Lynn."

"Oh honey, you don't have to," Rita replies. "Let's do it later while your wound heals. And speaking of your dad and Lynn, where are they? And the rest of your sisters for that matter?" But Lincoln hesitates to answer. "Oh wait, let me guess. Are they up for the biggest surprise? I can't wait!"\

"Well…" Lincoln utters.

In reality, his sisters and his father rush to the Royal Woods Mall because they forget that this Sunday is Mother's Day. They have to do last minute shopping for a gift to Rita. And the entire scenario is all _Hunger Games_ -sque. Lori and Leni fight over for a teal cocktail dress. Luna and Lola argue on which genre of music their mother loves. Luan and Lucy grumble over a textile set. And Lynn, Lana, Lisa and Lynn Sr. race to get the last 'World's Greatest Mother' mug. All of which culminates in a scuffle. And Lily can only look with disdain as she watches them race around the mall while she waits by the daycare center.

"Don't tell me…" Rita implies.

"It is a reality," Lincoln sighs.

"Oh well, let's wait for them," she responds, "In the meantime, while we wait for them why don't we watch AARGGH! for a moment?"

"You really mean that? I thought you don't like AARGGH!?"

"I don't, but I like the episode where they explore that haunted department store. Shall we?"

Gleefully, Lincoln leads Rita to the living room, and the two start binge-watching AARGGH! for Mother's Day. It was peculiar but great.

 ** _Hope you guys had a great Mother's Day with your mothers (or your maternal figures)!_**


	7. All About My Father

At the sunset of a Saturday in June 2008, Lynn Jr. just saw a local baseball game with her mother. At that time, Lynn Sr. promised to see a baseball game with his daughter on that very day. Her motivation came from a time when she was enamored of the game itself as she had discovered her hand in playing baseball. But it was just wrong timing that day because of sudden fallout of the economy of that year.

After the game, Lynn Jr. skips to the field when the audience left the premises. She kicks the sand to rid of her boredom from waiting for her dad to arrive to fetch them. Time flies that she sits by the pitcher's mound. All the time being, Lynn Jr. was being stubborn for the fact that her dad did not show up as promised.

Rita tries to cheer her up. "Lynn, sweetie, get out of the field. You might get dirty from the dust. Or even sneezes. Though I haven't check of your inborn allergies."

But Lynn Jr. mulishly ignores her mother's pleas and keeps kicking the sand around.

"Lynn, listen to me. We don't want your father to worry about you now," she insists, but Lynn keeps being stubborn. Just the mention of her father angers her right now. Rita sighs deeply out of hopelessness.

Moments go by, and Lynn Sr. arrives after a disastrous day at the bank. He runs around the local built-in bleachers in search of them. But he is only able to spot Lynn Jr. by the field.

At that revelation, Lynn Sr. runs to the benches below and comes across his wife. "Sorry, came late. What's going on with Lynn?"

"Oh good you're here," Rita replies. Referring to Lynn Jr., she says, "Well, she's not happy when you' didn't show up."

Hearing that, Lynn Sr. becomes upset to himself.

"Are you alright?" Rita asks, "What happened in the bank?"

Just the sullen expression of Lynn Sr.'s face says it all. "I lost it all dear. I lost it all." He was definitely referring to his investments that he lost to a high-profile New York-based bank founded by wealthy brothers. It was a big blow on his part to lose his lifelong investments, not because he lost his hard-earned money but because he does not know how he can secure his family on such a disaster. "I'm sorry."

At that news, Rita embraces her husband to comfort him. "It's okay dear. I had enough negativity for the day. I had to wait in line to get Lynn hotdogs. And some guy cut the line to in front of me."

"Not sure if that helps."

"Don't worry about it. I'm more worried about Lynn." The husband and the wife then turn around to see their daughter upset and sitting at the pitcher's mound behind face.

"I'll talk to her," Lynn Sr. says as he enters the fields to approach his daughter. As he named her daughter after his own name, Lynn Sr. easily sympathizes from Junior's disappointment. "Lynn…Lynn…"

Though she recognizes the voice, Lynn Jr. is irresponsive towards him.

"Look Junior, I know you're upset. I know stuff didn't work your way."

"But you promised," Lynn Jr. mutters. "You promised."

"I know I promised," Lynn Sr. replies, "I wanted to see the game with you. I really wanted to know."

"And the team lost!" Lynn Jr. replies, "The team always wins when you were with me. And they lost!"

"Look honey, the team could have win or lose, even when I don't show up."

"But you promised!" After her venting, Lynn Jr. faces behind.

Feeling hopeless of his current situation, Lynn Sr. resorts to revealing his entire situation to his daughter. "Look Lynn, I know I promised. I am really excited for the game. But your father had to face hard times. Without him doing it, you wouldn't be in the game in the first place. Lynn, I'm not expecting you to understand. But I just want you to know that I love you. I really do. That's why I need you right now."

But she remains despondent, making Lynn Sr. more upset. He lands his head towards a concrete and stares at an abandoned but useful baseball glove and ball. And from there, he thinks of an idea.

He throws the ball towards the pitcher's mound, making it roll to Lynn's position. She notices the ball and looks behind to see her father at position in home base. "Come on, I know you want to. Come on. Get the ball and let's play."

Easily, the still stubborn Lynn grabs the ball but rolls it back to her father before she goes back to the mound. "Go away."

Not wanting to quit on his daughter, Lynn Sr. throws the ball once more in an amateur way. This time, Lynn Jr. actually notices and gets angered by it.

Lynn Sr. keeps motivating him her, "Come on Lynn. You know you want to play."

"That's not how you play, daddy," Lynn Jr. grumbles.

"Then pitch me how to play baseball. Hehehe. Get it?"

Angrily, Lynn throws the ball at her father, hitting him by the chest. It is definitely what the Loud patriarch is asking for.

"Good throw. Now one more!" As Lynn Sr. throws the ball back to her, Lynn Jr. realizes that her father is challenging her. With that, she throws the ball one more time, and Lynn Sr. catches it this time. There is a surge of excitement growing inside of Lynn that she continues on with the catch-and-throw. "Now you're getting it!"

"Yeah!" Lynn screams in exhilaration.

Another genuine father-and-daughter moment comes between them. Rita cannot help but feel proud at them as she watches by the bench.

* * *

Flash to present day, and Lynn Sr. and Lynn Jr. are having the same bonding on the 3rd Sunday of June.

One throw from Lynn Sr. and the younger Lynn catches it easily but halts the game after feeling tired. "Okay dad, let's stop it right here."

"You sure sweetie?" he asks.

"Yeah," she replies. "Hey dad, thanks." At that statement, Lynn Jr. embraces her father to complete her expression of gratitude. In return, Lynn Sr. tightly embraces her back.

"Okay dad, that's good. You can let go now."

"Oh, sorry."

"How about we hit for some ice cream cake?"

"I thought you're on strict diet?"

"I would do this for you, daddy."

With that, Lynn Sr. smiles brightly. And they leave the field for an ice cream treat for the remainder of the day. Lynn Sr. is satisfied.

 _Happy Father's Day to all fathers and father figures!_


	8. Grease Fighting

The first of September has arrived. For the majority, it is a sour time when summer ends and school arrives. The Louds experience the same thing.

At this point, they have to prepare and sigh for the fact that school is coming. But at least they know they had a fun summer, unlike Lori who arrives by the door, messy-looking with her eyeliner dripping below her lashes, her hair frizzy, her skin nearly covered in grease and her top filled with dirt. She just got back from vacation with her boyfriend Bobby.

The sisters are shocked at this discovery.

"Lori, what happened to you?" Lynn asks.

"Oh no! Was it a bad time at the mall? Was it traffic? Or did Bobby drove so crazy that it turned you messy?" Leni asks in grave concern.

"No Leni," Lori answers. "But you're right about Bobby."

"What?!" the Loud sisters get shocked.

"What happened at your vacation, dude?" Luna asks.

With a sigh, Lori starts to explain what happened.

* * *

On the other hand, Lincoln and company, composing of Clyde, Rusty, Liam and Zach, are playing Game of Generals at Gus' Games and Grub when Bobby enters by the door, messy-looking with his eyes hit and drooping like flat balloons, his hair ruffled, his skin nearly covered in grease and his clothes stained with dirt. He just got back from vacation with his girlfriend Lori and from bringing her home.

The boys are shocked at this discovery as well.

"Bobby, what happened?!" Lincoln asks.

"Weren't you supposed to be in a vacation with Lori?" Clyde asks aggressively, though he tends to be too over-the-top dramatic. "What did you did to her? Did you also mess her up? Were you such a bad boyfriend that you left her in shambles?!" Fortunately, when Clyde is about to strike Bobby, the boys pull him back.

With no other way to explain what happened, Bobby sighs, "I believe you are right, Clyde."

The boys are astounded with that statement.

"I am?" Clyde repeats. "I am. Of course, I am."

"But what happened, Mr. Bobby Sir?" Rusty asks, followed up with questions from the rest of the boys.

Bobby then stops the commotion, "Okay fellas, I know you're all young, but here's how it all went…"

Just like that, the jack-of-all-trades feels the aura of narrating those times, as if the first chords from the classic song "Summer Nights" from the musical _Grease_ are heard. And inspired by it, he decides to sing it all, along with Lori simultaneously telling the whole story to the tune of "Summer Nights".

If that isn't complete enough, the two of them concurrently imagine themselves as Danny and Sandy, with the boys and girls singing along, complete in their 50's teen getups and their sudden choreography.

Bobby: _**Summer fighting had me aghast**_

Lori: _**Summer fighting happened at last**_

Bobby: _**It made me hurl crazy for me**_

Lori: _**It made me cry literally**_

Bobby and Lori: _**Summer days, please go away because of those summer fights**_

All Choruses: _**Oh well, oh well, oh well, oh hoo!**_

Boy Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Liam: _**How did you go so far?**_

Girl Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Luna: _**Like it left you a scar?**_

All Choruses: _**Aha! Aha! Aha!**_

Bobby: _**She squirm by me, she hit an amp**_

Lori: _**He squirm by me, tripped like The Tramp**_

Bobby: _**I told her stop, she danced around**_

Lori: _**He showed up, hating the sound**_

Bobby and Lori: _**Summer sun wasn't that fun because of those summer fights**_

All Choruses: _**Oh well, oh well, oh well, oh hoo!**_

Girl Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Leni: _**Was he that so tight?**_

Boy Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Zach: _**Wait, who's wrong or right?**_

All Choruses: _**Bap! Doo-bee-doo! Doo-bee-doo! Doo-bee-doo-bee! Bap! Doo-bee-doo! Doo-bee-doo! Doo-bee-doo-bee! Bap!**_

Bobby: _**Took her rolling, she does tirade**_

Lori: _**He went groaning, we haven't paid**_

Bobby: _**We're forced to work under the rocks**_

Lori: _**We're forced to work till 5 o'clock**_

Bobby and Lori: _**Summer fling ain't happening because of those summer fights**_

Boy Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Rusty: _**So wait, who left the bag?**_

Girl Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Lynn: _ **Haven't you two seen the tag?**_

All Choruses: _**Shoopa-papa! Shoopa-papa! Shoopa-papa! Shoopa-papa! Shoopa-papa! Shoopa-papa! Shoopa-papa! Yeah!**_

Lori: _**He got fiendish, clenching his hand**_

Bobby: _**Oh, she got deadly, kicking the sand**_

Lori: _**At the suite, he's a sweet teen**_

Bobby: _**She was good, but what came between?**_

Booby and Lori: _**Summer heat can't even beat of those, of our summer fights**_

All Choruses: _**Woah! Woah! Woah! Wooh!**_

Girl Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Luan: _**Did you both overspend?**_

Boy Chorus: _**Tell me more! Tell me more!**_

Clyde: _**Tell me is this the end?**_ (Lincoln then stops Clyde from intruding.)

Lori: _**He got cold, that's how it ends**_

Bobby: _**But so grateful, my family lends**_

Lori: _**Sad our rest end with a doubt**_

Bobby: _**Wondering if we'll still go out**_

Bobby and Lori: _**Summer dreams…ain't like the streams, but I love…our summer nights**_

All Choruses: _**Tell me more! Tell me more! Was that all?**_

For the final bow, all of the guys go back to their menial duties that they all just forgot that they performed a musical number.

Lincoln even questions it, "Wait, what just happened?"

Thankfully, Lisa explains to us the situation, "If you're not too confident of the rhythmic exposition about the conundrum set by my big sister and her romantic accomplice, it simply goes like two lovebirds that left their cage and attempted to roam free with no idea of possible habitats or sources for food. So, they fought on vacation. If that is not hitherto comprehensible, I guess musicals will do the trick for you." But when she is about to leave the scene, Lisa confronts again the reader, "Advanced apologies if I ruined this revelation for you. But it's at least more digestible than a corny musical number. Go figure." And after that, Lisa leaves the scene, and things go to normal. Somehow.


	9. Grand Time

**Apologies readers that I only get to release a story now. I was supposed to release stories during the holiday break. But after a sudden family bereavement, I skipped them to spend the time in solemnity and empathy with my family.**

 **Thus, this story reflects it.**

* * *

The last days of December are bittersweet, to say the least. Pop Pop visited the Loud House after Christmas day. And the family took time to make the atmosphere look festive and bright. Gladly, they had the Christmas season and the New Year to make that possible.

But two days after Christmas, Lincoln got up from such a wonderful rest after assisting his grandfather on shopping, shuffle boarding and partaking on mall celebrations. On his orange PJs and bunny slippers, and with his eyes still droopy, he headed down to the kitchen and started heating water through the coffee maker to get a nice cup of cocoa.

What he does not notice was that the aroma of freshly-brewed cocoa had swarmed the kitchen airs. Probably it was because of his senses still shut down.

Suddenly, somebody uttered to him. "You're just like me Lincoln. Drowsy like a zombie. But I always got myself awake by her sweet smell of cocoa."

Upon hearing that, Lincoln twitched and got his senses alert. He then saw none other than Pop Pop from the dinner table.

He then continued to share, "She would always see sluggish. So, she knew that the best way to treat me is to give me a sweet round of cocoa. That's how she does it."

"Is it grandma?" Lincoln asks.

"Yes, yes it is Lincoln," Pop Pop gloomily confirmed. "Your grandma actually was part of the Red Cross. She never thought that serving a fresh mug of cocoa would actually brighten the spirits of those lonely people. I loved how she served there."

"Grandma is really that amazing?"

"Yep. She was."

Then Lincoln excitingly pleaded to his grandpa, "Tell me more. Tell me more about grandma, Pop Pop."

"Well, we could start it with helping you on your cocoa." At the insistence, Pop Pop showed Lincoln how to prepare the same cocoa that his late grandmother would. Instead of using the easy-to-mix cocoa powder, Pop Pop retrieved a box of chocolate tableau and had them dissolve on a coffee mug when poured with hot water. He then mixed the tableau until the chocolate got mixed and powder residue got stained to the spoon. He poured more water to dissolve the chocolate until it was ready. He then poured a spoonful of milk for sweetening, chocolate sprinkles and marshmallows for add-ons. Finally, he added butter toast to the final preparation. Pop Pop served it for Lincoln. "There you go, boy."

For that, Lincoln took a dip of the toast to the mug and a sip of the drink, making his mouth stained. "This is tasty, Pop Pop. And good."

"Thank me later, Lincoln," he replied.

"So, about you and grandma, tell me how did you guys met?"

"Well, if I can recall, it started like this…" Then Pop Pop begins to narrate.

 _ **Pop Pop's POV**_

I was part of the war on those times. I believe it was the 50s or 60s. I was a gruff and proud soldier for the United States of America Army. But most importantly, I was just a wimpy private.

My body got plumped from the very start. It got worse when I hit high school. And it all came too significant when the Vietnam War came to a rise.

At first, I said to myself, "Well, I would never sell my soul to a war that I thought doesn't make any sense." I was a rebel on my days. But two men in black showed up on my door and drag me to the army.

My commune would tell me, "War is bad. Love is good." Well, your old Pop Pop here would agree on that. But, wouldn't it be good that I hold a gun and act like an action star while holding it?

The answer is no. Your old man here was placed on the lowest division of the Army where he I relegated to kitchen duty: scrubbing the floors with my toothbrush, scrubbing the windows with the toothbrush and scrubbing the pots and pans with the same toothbrush. That was a hard life in Da Nang.

I also got to serve tea to my superiors. But they seem to have a distaste for it, with the colonel spitting it on me. "You bastard! Why is this tea so sweet?! This is jasmine tea. Why does it need to be sweet?" he complained at me. So, I did my best to make sure every tea I served was the best.

The war went on without me on the field. I got assigned to aid those who got injured from the battlefield and served them drinks to spare. The next month came with the high-ranking division withdrawing from the main war up north. I saw before my eyes the extent of the war. And that was when my captain announced that our division will be sent to the main battlefield.

Relief came those who waited to be sent. I was thrilled too, but I soon became scared. I became scared so much that I fled from base and retreated to the woods. Even though I knew how to wield a rifle – I don't – I was too scared that I might receive my last breath in this war.

That is when she showed up. She was a nurse stationed on the base and she was aiding nearby villagers to be evacuated to the base.

Being the person there, I shared everything, even my fears.

She got surprised when she learned of my story that she remarked, "For you? A rebel who is scared? Do rebels need to be scared?"

I said, "All people get scared."

She replied, "I am scared too. But I am here, and you are too. So we might as well do this for the country. I know you can do better."

Right at that moment, I saw her glowing in my eyes. She was so beautiful when she encouraged me. With her bun hair, fully white and lashes that shut those eyes. She was beautiful.

She was about to walk away, but I rushed to assist her in giving shelter to the casualties and providing cocoa for them. She even showed how she perfected it. Oh, it was a dazzling night after that. Taking a break before going back to aid. It was the perfect night where we shared cocoa.

The next day, we hurried out of the base and into the main battleground. I and that beautiful nurse – I never caught her name though – waved goodbye. We knew we will not meet each other the next time. But I am determined to be part on winning this war. And eventually (You know the drill Lincoln. You learned all this stuff at school) we lost.

The north army liberated the entire Vietnam and toppled the south. The main forces and the guerilla forces brought the army down. The army has to withdraw from Saigon, then Da Nang, then the Vietnam mainland. And we sailed home empty-handed. Like I knew it: the war made no sense, so that happened.

There were casualties from my unit that once I saw them, it was hard to look away. So I resented near at the bow of the warship.

Then, she approached me. That nurse who brightened my spirit before I got into war walked to me.

She said with a tone of pessimism and glimmering hope, "We lost."

Nothing else I could say but, "Mhm. We lost." But randomly, I said, "But we did fine."

"Yeah, we did fine."

"So, what's waiting for you back?"

"Not much. I will go back as a school nurse. But you know, I look forward to see those kids again." She then asked me, "How about you?"

"Oh, probably back in my commune. Or maybe take up a career in making cocoa."

She chuckled at that. "Want us to make one for the rest?"

I got delighted with that suggestion. "Alright."

And from there started a good friendship. We still saw each other after the war, complimented each other, made moments with each other and then started a life with each other.

 _ **Normal POV**_

Then Albert Loud sighed, "Till she was gone. It was stomach disease, Lincoln. You should have seen her. She could have been a great grandmother to you." Tears would not stop flowing from his eyes as reminisces his wife once more.

Lincoln then offers him a box of tissues. "Here."

Pop Pop took two folds and used it to wipe his eyes and blow his nose. "Thanks boy." After finishing their cups, he retrieved a bouquet of flowers and a picture from the drawer. The boy then realized from that Pop Pop is planning to visit his grandmother's grave. "Would you want to come with me? I would love to take you for a stroll there."

With no other choice, Lincoln chaperoned his grandfather towards the local cemetery. He also learned of the significance of their visit since it was the 15th anniversary of her passing.

The tone went somber when Albert saw his wife's grave. They laid her flowers and her frame. But Pop Pop remained kneeling to her grave. Tears dripped from his eyes that his breath could not hold it.

Lincoln came to his aid and embraced him. Pop Pop embraced him tightly after. There, they took one time of solemnity to dedicate a soul Lincoln never get to witness but get to learn evenly.


	10. Lynn-y Bird

_This is loosely based on one of my favorite movies of 2017._

 _In the series, one of the tropes commonly seen are Lincoln's dynamics with one or more of his siblings, and his parents. But rarely is seen a dynamic between one of his siblings and either both, or either their father or mother. So, let us showcase one of their stories._

* * *

It has been a busy playing season for Lynn. She has always been the unstoppable force of her well-rounded team, leading them to achieve the citywide championships, unto the countywide and till the statewide rounds. But after the tournament and their brief celebration, the team dispersed for their own means of celebration, and Lynn ended up stuck with her mom, who is the only one available to watch her championship. They stayed overnight in a motel in the city.

The next morning, Rita tries to wake a stubbornly sleepy Lynn. "Lynn…Lynn…I have appointments in the afternoon. We have to move out."

But she fails to wake up. The snoring does not help.

Minutes go by till the clock strike at 10 in the morning. Lynn on her messy hair rubs her eyes wide awake to see her mother already packed for them to get on the road.

"You seemed to have a good beauty sleep," Rita relaxingly utters.

"So bushed…" Lynn slurs, then buries herself back to bed. "This bed so comfy."

"Well, you don't have a whole day to do that," Rita says. "Get up now. We leave by 11."

Lynn tries to put herself back again but groans instead. Nevertheless, after thirty minutes, she fixes herself and leaves with her mom.

Basing on the Loud siblings' relationship with their mom, everyone seems to have a fine bond with her. Lincoln seems to have the closest bond, followed by Lily, Lori and Leni. But, basing on Lynn, they have a fine bond. Rita supports her daughter in her athletic accomplishments. Though, a disconnect can be a tendency, given Lynn's closeness and resemblance to her father and her aggressive attitude.

Nowhere that is apparent during the trip back home when Rita tries to connect to Lynn, whose mind was still on the games.

"Hey Lynn…maybe before we get home, we might stop by at the hardware store. The ceiling's leaking apparently. And we have to fix it up. Oh, also, I've been wanting to set up a mini-garden beside the garage. So it could use a little special feature on it. I need a muscle on it. What'd you say?"

But Lynn has her mind and focus drifted away to the road.

"Okay…" Silence comes back in the car for a moment. Just silence.

Rita finds a way to break the ice, "So…I heard of a new yogurt place in town. I wonder if we should drop by."

"Yogurt's not on my diet, mom," Lynn says.

"Well, I thought we could use a celebration dessert." Lynn groans as her mother continues talking. "You still eat chocolate, so I don't yogurt will be an exemption. I know because I saw you bringing home two slices of chocolate cake."

"That was a one-time gig."

"Just saying. Don't have me confused with a strict diet, then you will eat chocolate after."

"Okay, maybe for this season, yes. But I need to get back on track."

"Sweetie, next baseball season is sixth months from now. Relax. Take your mind off sports for a while."

"I don't think that's possible. You know me."

"Yes, I know you. I also know you fail in your math exams. Also in science and history."

"Mom, you're talking to an athlete here. I don't think there's a point of learning science, algebrainy or biolology? Or whatever that thing with the chemicals and stuff…"

"Oh, you will soon though. Right, you have to put your mind on them."

"I can't mom. I am an active athlete. Sports is in my blood. I want to try many things like foosball, or tennis, or rugby, or kickball, or judo, or taekwondo, or the one with the swords and stuff. I want to try them all…"

"Sweetie, you have a lot of time for those things. But we need to focus on your studies now."

"Ohh, I don't think so, mom."

"You have to. You have to make sure you are a good student to be a good athlete at the same time. I think I might send you for special classes. Probably hire a tutor or enroll you to an after-school program…"

But before she could finish, Lynn opens the car door and drops herself out of the moving car, to the horror of her mother. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

Days go by, and Lynn's arm is wrapped in a bandage, due to the incident. She goes to school with her siblings as smooth as usual. Though what is new is her added contempt to studying, a note addressed by her mother when she arrives home.

"Lynn, your homeroom teacher just called. She said you're not doing fine at writing class," Rita opens as Lynn is about to head upstairs. "Lynn, come here, please."

"Mom, could I use a break for a while?" Lynn pleads, "I feel bushed from practice."

"Well, I hope you don't feel 'bushed' about me trying to get your grades up."

"Mom, my grades are okay. And besides, who makes a huge deal about my grades?"

"Well, I'll tell you who – your coach."

"What? What did you…?"

"I asked him if your grades are a big deal as an athlete. He said yes, academic performance must be decent enough. So, I suggested to him for you to be excused from practice for after school tutoring."

"What?! Mom…why you…?"

"And I will be your tutor."

"Oh no, not in a million years."

"Your choice. It's either this or get benched for next season."

"Oh mom, no. You can't make me. And I can't believe you have to do this. Nope, I will not take this choice. And that's final!"

Eventually, she gives in to Rita tutoring her. But Lynn feels the urge to sleep in the proceedings.

"Lynn!" Rita nudges her daughter's arm to wake her up. "Pay attention. Okay? Let's continue. The American Civil War started on…"

Every word Lynn hears is boredom to her ears. Thus, she groans and pulls herself back to sleep.

Seeing her demotivated, Rita brings up a challenge, "Okay, get a higher grade than C. Then, I can allow you to do anything. It has to be something other than sports. Deal?"

With another groan, Lynn mumbles, "Fine."

"What? What you said?"

She then reiterates ferociously, "I said fine, mom."

Eventually, Lynn studies the best she can and receives a final grade of C+ in mathematics, science, history and grammar class. Rita was hoping for a grade, around A- to B-. But at least she finds the improvement.

* * *

As a reward, Rita allows Lynn to attend her first middle school party at a friend's house. Rita is skeptical on her daughter's choice of a reward. But nevertheless, a deal is a deal.

"So, your first party…"

"Yeah. It's just the class, the derby team and probably also the baseball team," Lynn assures. "Trust me, my friends think this will be awesome."

"Just call me before 9, okay?"

"Don't worry, mom. I got it lock in the bolt." After that, Lynn excitedly gets out of the car and braces her friends who are waiting outside for her. Rita cannot help but feel worried about sending out her daughter on a night on her own. Eventually, she takes delight on it.

The night comes by quietly in the Loud House until Rita receives a call from Lynn, as early as 8:50 PM. "Lynn, hey, you called early…"

Surprising to her, Lynn gives the insistence to be fetched early. With that, Rita speeds to the house and sees Lynn sitting on the grass.

The latter then enters the car, with her face covered in tears.

"Oh sweetie, what happened?" her mother asks.

Trying to hold from breaking down, Lynn utters, "Do you know the feel of disappointment, that feeling that the one you like is not meant for you? And no one is there to understand it?" In the end, Lynn breaks down.

Rita then comes to her aid by embracing her. After a moment to recover, she takes her home.

* * *

Days go on normally, spanning from March to early May when classes end for the summer. Though she would tend to retreat to sports for comfort, Lynn continues to bond with her mother, even in going shopping with her to the local thrift shop.

"I was thinking we can probably improve your wardrobe," her mother tells her.

"Mom, does this look like the girl who needs a new change in her wardrobe?" Lynn replies back.

"I am just saying we could use a little change that is not the shirt you have now."

"I would rather bathe in my own sweat with this shirt that change to a new one. Not gonna change my mind!"

"Okay, I'm just saying." Rita then takes out one red button-up, sleeveless top from the clothesline that Lynn somehow is attracted to.

"What is that?" When Rita gives the top to her, Lynn is ecstatic to try it on. When she does, both she and Rita are pleased on the new choice wardrobe.

"You look beautiful on it," the Loud matriarch compliments her.

Lynn smiles on this. "Well, I am not gonna wear this now. Maybe soon. I don't know."

"I just want you to look at your best. And be the best that you can be."

"What if this is the best I can be?" After she asks that, Lynn pulls out her baseball cap to emphasize her point.

Rita has nothing to say for her daughter. She just only embraces her and kisses her hair. Lynn hugs her back as they share another intimate moment as mother and daughter.

Time will tell if their connection will endure as Lynn matures to adolescence. But thankfully, there is one thing she succeeded: showing her compassion to her mother.


	11. Fever Pitch

It is another fine Saturday in the recurrently chaotic Loud House. With the folks away, the Loud children enjoy a watch of their favorite reality cupcake contest show from their TV box. Lily is luckily sleeping in her room. So, the siblings grab the opportunity to munch on some popcorn, slouch on every comfortable area in the living room and multitask on watching and using their phone.

With a sigh of relaxation, Lincoln utters, "This is the life. Saturday's here. Homework's done. No worries." He then walks to kitchen with a Slusho drink on his hand.

But amidst the wonderful, relaxing Saturday, his ears receive a familiar tune. It is cheery. It is nostalgic. It is a sound that came from not too long ago.

He moves around the kitchen to recognize tune, until he walks away from the dining room and stops by the staircase. It is louder from there. The tune comes from upstairs.

Lincoln cannot help but feel uneasy. Maybe it is the unyielding hook of the tune or the sense that he hears it from thin air. Whatever it is, he alerts his sisters. "Guys, did you hear that? That sound, it's familiar. Guys!"

But the girls are not able to hear his pleas. Lori and Leni have their ears covered with earphones while watching from their phone. Luna is listening to her own beats. And so as Luan, Lynn, Lucy and Lisa. The twins meanwhile set the volume as high as at a 90 level, so they are easily hooked to the screen.

So, Lincoln takes matters to his own hands. "That's it!" He swipes the TV remote on top of the table and switches off the TV. This is sufficient to catch the attention of the girls.

"LINCOLN!"

"What's the big deal?! We're about to see Ramsey's recipe!" Lola scolds him.

"Come on Lincoln! What's the big whoop?! We're watching!" Lynn reproaches her brother.

But he snaps back, "While you were listening to your phone?"

Lynn recognizes her mistake, but gives this excuse, "What? It's what I do to get through that boring nature documentary at school."

"Literally Lincoln, what gives?!" Lori complains.

"I am trying to tell you. The sound!"

"Sound? What sound?" Lola replies.

"White noise is what occupies my surroundings now," Lucy implies.

"I have to agree, apart from the fact that our vocal components are what was currently perceived right now," Lisa insinuates.

"Just everybody, take off all your ear sets so you'll know what I'm talking about."

The girls reluctantly do so. But they don't hear anything out of the ordinary.

"Seriously, dude, what sound are you talking about?" Luna asks.

"Maybe it's the sound of your voice he is talking about," Leni assumes, which made Luna raise an eyebrow.

"Probably you're hearing things Lincoln," Luan responds. "Your mind might not have been that sound. Hehehe. Get it?" Again with the out-of-place joke, Lincoln frowns upon it.

"Lincoln, it must have been your imagination. You're just hearing things, okay?" Pretty much everyone is doubtful on Lincoln's perception of that "sound".

But Lana responds otherwise, as she crouches to the floor while hugging her knees.

"Lana, stop acting like a toy puppy and get over with!" Lola scolds her.

"Can't. Remove. Song. Out of. My Head!" Lana stutters in fear.

Now everybody's concerns fall into place.

"I hear it too," Lynn utters. "I feel it coming back."

"Me too," Luna reports.

"I received it too," Lucy says. At this point, all of the siblings hear the same tune that Lincoln heard in the first place. And it keeps playing in their heads.

"Could it be?" Lori asks.

With that, the siblings disperse around the first floor level of their house to get a clearer perception. But each spots an otherworldly encounter in their household. Lori notices the cabinet doors in the kitchen open. Leni sees the tablecloth from their living room pulled down, along with the flower vase. Luna steps on gooey fluid from the door carpet. Luan spots the door opened to her parents' room. Lynn sees the basement light flicker twice. Lucy feels a rather, chilly wind that nearly blew her away. Lola witnesses the car alarm to the van activated once. Lana discovers tracks that lead to one of the windows, giving the illusion that some creature escaped to the window. Lisa receives a confirmation of an ethereal presence from tracking the heat signatures within the household. But altogether, they hear that beguiling tune.

The point where it gets louder is where Lincoln last stopped: near the staircase. The Loud children huddle up on that spot. And from there, the tune becomes clear but ominous:

 _Cheer up baby. Don't you cry._

 _No more tears. It's cheer up time._

 _Laugh with me and we will be happy, happy, happy_

"Could it be?" Leni confides.

"It can't be. We saw Fenton got crushed in the curb," Lynn implies.

"I don't know for sure," Lincoln jitters.

Suddenly, they hear the innocent titter from their infant sister. "Hahhhhh!" they gasp.

"Lily must have Fenton, but why?" Lana assumes.

"That's ridiculous," Lola replies, "It's not like it can supernaturally appear out of nowhere. Could it?"

"Scientifically improbable, you halfwits," Lisa responds to them. Timely enough as the lights flicker around them, making the tremble in fear.

But the song keeps playing, and Lily keeps giggling.

"This ain't good. I can't even tell a joke on this," Luan expresses her fear.

"Okay, let's just check her out, slowly but surely," Lincoln suggests, to which his sisters fearfully agree.

Little step by little step, the siblings proceed to Lily's room. Some of them encounter the same obstacles previously. Luna steps on gooey fluid from the door carpet. Lynn looks behind to see the bathroom light flicker twice. Lucy feels a rather, chilly wind that nearly blew her away. Lana uncovers dirt on the floor. And Lisa receives a signal from her scanner, indicating an ethereal presence inside the room.

"There's another creature in there," Lisa confirms.

It sends shivers down their spine, thinking what threat could be in Lily's room. But one thing is for sure to them that they must do, even though it will be scary: Lily must be saved.

"Well, we have to check it out," Lincoln says.

"You go first Lincoln," Lori pleads.

"What? No! We all go in," he convinces her and the rest. "We are her siblings. We need to protect her."

Feeling that realization, Lori sighs. "Okay. You're right."

"Together now!" At his word, the siblings simultaneously grab one part of the door knob and open the door to see the room in neat shape.

"What the? I'd expect a messy room that was messed up," Lynn shares.

"It didn't seem the ominous threat like a while ago," Lucy adds.

And just to cap off their suspicions, they see Lily hugging her blanket and about to fall asleep.

"Awwww…" the siblings react.

"Well, it's literally nothing bad," Lori says.

"Yeah, I thought we really heard that song," Lola adds.

"We must be hearing things," Lincoln concludes.

"We might as well put all that to sleep, along with Lily," Luan quips, "Get it?"

After that, the siblings place their baby sister to rest on her crib.

"That should do the trick," Luna acknowledges.

"Well, we might have seen things, but at least Lily is safe," Lincoln concedes. "Nothing can top that."

Abruptly, the door shuts, locking the siblings in the room.

Lana and Lynn try to budge, to no avail.

"It's stuck!" Lynn alerts.

"Oh no! I can't get us out!" Lana admits, "I left my screw driver outside."

But just as the siblings try to figure out a way out, the song plays again:

 _Cheer up baby. Don't you cry._

 _No more tears. It's cheer up time._

 _Laugh with me and we will be happy, happy, happy_

The children turn their heads. The sound is traced to the window, where they see none other than the innocent doll, Fenton the Feel Better Fox, doing its happy song-and-dance.

 _Cheer up baby. Don't you cry._

 _No more tears. It's cheer up time._

 _Laugh with me and we will be happy, happy, happy_

"Quiet, you animal!" Lola squeals. And in a hysteric motion, she charges for the doll.

However, piles of goo suddenly lands on her face. "Ewww! What is this?!"

The siblings retrieve her. But as they see a path of dripping fluid, they move backwards near Lily's crib. Lisa can sense the presence of a creature from spotting four towering pillars that are insect-like and hirsute. If that is not enough, a gigantic limb in the room crushes Fenton to bits again. And a roar trembles from the darkest part of the ceiling.

All of the children quiver in fear, not knowing what to do and learning that they are at the belly of beast that has finally drawn his prey into his trap. They huddle, wrapping themselves together in protection.

A minute goes by without a sound but the cries of fear from the Loud children.

A faint silence goes by. And almost, each of their nerves eases down.

But from the thinnest air, the beast roars from above behind them. Its dark eyes, fang-like teeth, amphibian-like feature and predatory presence sends the children at their fullest screams, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

As it turns out, the entire thing is a story pitch by Rita, rehearsing it to Clyde. "So what you think? I already told the kids about this. And they were thrilled. What do you think?"

Needless to say, Clyde shivers in fear. "I say…" he ends his statement with a nervous nod.

Later on, Rita is convinced to sell her story to the publishers. But they tell her to transform the story into a movie script. She agrees. But the resulting script hasn't been made into a movie. Until Jeffrey Jacob, a big Hollywood producer, purchases the script.

And the resulting movie was this: _11 Cloverfield Children_.


	12. A Blight at the Roxbury

At one afternoon, in the rather quiet Loud house, Lana approaches Lori on the couch in the living room for assistance on her homework. "Hey Lori?"

"What is it, dear sister?" Lori replies, dropping down her phone.

"Can you help me with something for school? Because it's really hard."

"Alright, tell me."

Eagerly, Lana reads the homework question to her older sister, "On your own words, please answer this question: What is love…?"

But before Lana could finish the question, the lights dim to be replaced by colorful disco lights, and a familiar crowd-pleasing song plays in the background, segueing this lyric: " _Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me…no more._ "

The beat then feels fist-pumping and feet-stomping. And slowly, the song hits to its recognizable chorus. That is when Lincoln (with a boombox on his shoulder) and Clyde in suits pop out from behind the couch, shocking Lori in the process, and bob their heads to the earworm of a song (or meme).

"Boys, you could have…!" she scolds them.

But the song is too powerful that it takes over the entire room that Lana also chose to dance along.

"Literally? This is happening again?" Lori sighs, and eventually dances.

* * *

Meanwhile, Luna is diving right into her stockpile of belongings, looking for her extra drumsticks. She asks her roommate Luan, "Dude, did you clean up the closet?"

"Nope, why?" Luan replies.

"Trying to find my other drumsticks, dude," Luna answers. "I broke the other pair last gig."

"Probably in those trash bags that mom placed."

Luna then quickly checks out from the bags, which thankfully do not contain trash but their old belongings. Along the way, Luna pulls out a ballet dress that her mom gave her when she was little. "Oh, thankfully this baby is getting dumped."

Luan notices it, "Awww, you could have looked cute in that dress."

"No way in a bazillion years, dude."

"Please. I ballet you would have loved it."

"Love it? What is love…?" But before Luna could finish her sentence, the lights shift to dim, club lights, and the same Eurodance song starts playing in their room: _What is love?_ _Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me…no more._

The girls are bewildered on this sight. And just as the pre-chorus segue hits the chorus, Lincoln and Clyde emerge from the two bags and sing/dance to the beat.

"What's going on?" Luna utters speechlessly.

* * *

Jumping from that, Lynn consults to her reliable source of knowledge, Lisa, about a literature-related assignment. "Hey Lis, you know about Shakesalt, right?"

"The name's Shakespeare," Lisa corrects her. "Though, Shakespeare could be a pseudonym for a more successful 15th century writer. But what about the playwright?"

"Trying to understand his work," the athlete groans. "It's this stupid love story about a Mountie cue and a catapult."

"You mean _Romeo and Juliet_?"

"That one."

"There's a lot of rubbish regarding the wasteful devotion. But what about it?"

"The report says, 'Expound on their devotion to each other as star-crossed lovers'. I just want to find that oh-so deep meaning about them."

"I can claim that delusion might have brought them together. Probably, not love."

"Okay if not love, what is?"

"Love…" But before Lisa could finish her answer, the song is being cued, setting a disco aura in the room, accompanied by the song: _What is love?_ _Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me…no more._

Cue the infectious chorus that caused Lincoln and Clyde to emerge from Lisa's desk (like Doraemon) and bob their heads to the song.

While Lisa is bewildered, Lynn says, "I think I know the answer."

* * *

At the same time, Leni approaches Lola for help in her makeup. "Lola, do you have any good foundation? Or any good blush?"

"I thought you bought last week," Lola replies.

"I did. But the school said it's not 'professional' to apply it in school, whatever that means they said."

"Poor thing. Well, if there's anything we can take away with that, it's that the school has low outlook on real professionalism," Lola brags. "Makeup's on the shelf."

At Lola's permission, Leni browses her sister's shelf to see her lineup of cosmetic products. The older sister checks them out until she stumbles upon a beauty kit called "Love Essentials". She then asks Lola, "Hey Lola, what is Love…"

Abruptly, the Haddaway song pops out of nowhere, exactly where Leni ends. _Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me…no more._

Already learning of this pattern, Lola coaxes the boys, "Alright Lincoln! If you don't stop with the random dancing, I'll strangle you all!"

But the song is almost overwhelming that it bursts into the chorus, and the duo pops out to bob their heads.

 _What is love?_ _Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me…no more._ Lola is shocked, but Leni is passive.

* * *

At one time, the Loud sisters assemble in the couch to their usual shticks while they leave their attention away from the TV. This gives the opportunity for Lucy to share her poem to her sisters.

"Sisterhood, I wish to speak for you a sentiment that is close to my heart. And I need your thoughts."

But her sisters are easily distracted from their duties.

"Yeah sure, uh-uh…" Lynn says ignorantly.

Nevertheless, Lucy proceeds, "It's a two-verse haiku. Title: Love. _Love is a hard word_. _We search for it to learn it_. _But not, what is lo_ …?"

Somehow, Lucy's last words trigger for the sisters to stop her from finishing the line, knowing what can come up next. "NO LUCY!"

But it is too late, and the Haddaway songs pops out. Immediately, the sisters try to cover their ears, wishing to get the earworm out of their head.

Yet, Lucy seems happy at this happening that she finishes her poem: _Fools are we to cry. To ignore the search and try. I ask, what is love?_

At her words, Lincoln and Clyde pop out and bob their heads to the beat, along with Lucy, who was in cahoots with them.

* * *

Still at the same night, after they convince the kids to stop messing with such an innocent Eurodance pop song, Lynn Sr. and Rita prepare for bed.

"Gosh, the kids are having a kick of a time dancing," Rita shares.

"Tell me about it," Lynn Sr. adds. "One more that song plays in my head…"

But Rita calms him down from nearly breaking down. "Relax sweetie, it's over now."

"I know. But the song…what's the point? 'What is love?'"

They immediately realize that Lynn Sr. utters that line that they cover his mouth. But nothing happens after that.

"Really? No song?" Lynn Sr. says, "Whew, I thought it was something. Glad we enforce that."

"Yeah, me too. Because it was like automatic whenever I say that."

"Well, I'm glad that's over."

"Yes, I guess the boys learned their lesson."

"Mhmm, right honey. I mean I didn't expect that kind of Spanish inquisition."

Just as Lynn Sr. mention those last two words, a jarring musical sting is sounded in the room, and Lincoln, Clyde and Lucy burst from their room in red robes and hats. Lincoln then enunciates, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

"Your chief weapons are surprise?" Lynn Sr. quips.


	13. Woman on the Moon

On a normal Saturday in the late afternoon, Luan is walking towards her room, whistling while holding Mr. Coconuts in her right hand. "Such a nice lovely day, am I right?" she gleefully remarks.

But as she approaches the room, the 14-year-old comedienne recognizes grunts, coming from her sister/roommate Luna. Commotion surrounds in the room as Luna sounds like she is digging through her cluttered stuff. "Come on baby! Hope this would work!" One bang concerns Luan. "Nope. Not a good fit. "I can't get no satisfaction."

Luan checks her sister out. "Luna?" At her shock, she sees her older sister attempting to squeeze herself in a tight, backless black dress.

"Sis! A little privacy," Luna shrieks.

"Sorry. I just thought some trouble is going on."

"Well, there is now." Luna, with her teeth clenched, tries to pull the back hem upwards. "Little help."

Luan immediately comes to her sister's aid. Together, they force the dress upwards, making Luna less comfortable but acting fine about it. "Are you okay with this dress?" Luan asks.

"It's good. Definitely need to loosen the weight. But I'm pretty cool," Luna attests, despite the tightness to her abdomen. At much pressure, the back part gets ripped off minimally. But the backless portion gets ripped. In hindsight, the dress does not look unserviceable. But with the tiny rips on crucial parts, it is not. The Loud rocker bemoans of that fact. The piles of dresses that Luna tries to wear says a lot to her dilemma. "Just bogus, dude. It's gonna be a huge night tonight. And I got only this dress to make up for it." Out of pity, she buries her face to Luan's bed. "Saturday night's not right…"

As much as she wants to crack a joke in the situation, Luan walks to her sister in sympathy. "Is the dress the problem?"

"Yeah, well kinda but no…kinda bit. But…it's complicated, sis," Luna answers, trying to find the words she can describe about her problem.

"What's so complicated about dresses, sis?" Luan replies. "We have loads of dresses inside the house. You can give it a try."

Deep inside, Luna knows that is not the primary issue she has right now. But she tries to go along with Luan's pleas. "I suppose so…"

"Then why don't we ad-dress the problem and venture the closet? Hahaha. But seriously, no pun intended. Come on!" With that, Luan drags her nearly reluctant sister to Lori and Leni's room for dress searching. Gladly, the two older sisters are out on a hiking trip, and the rest of the siblings and their parents are out on their respective errands. Thus, they grab all of the dresses they have and place it on Lori's bed.

"Man, can't believe the older gals have these lot of clothes," Luna comments.

"I know right? Ain't it frilling? Hahaha! Get it?"

Luna grumbles with that sudden wordplay. She then asks her joyous sister. "Well, there's one thing I don't get, sis."

"What is it?"

"Well, not that I don't appreciate your help. I appreciated the help, dude. I'm kind of surprised that you are this concerned about dresses."

"You can thank Leni for that. She is so picky about her fashion sense." Luan then remembers one time when Leni assists her in searching for a perfect dress for her slam poetry session in school. She keeps remarking, "Leni, this looks fine." But Leni makes it clear that her choices are not enough, thus causing Luan to try every dress till one dress stands out on Leni's eye, much to the comedienne's behest. "She might not have been a-costumed to simplicity. Hahaha. Get it?"

But I still don't get it. Why are you helping me with this? I mean sure, this thing is only my problem, and I can handle it. And usually you guys didn't mind me about it. So, it was cool…"

"What about that time I helped you out with that Prince outfit?"

When Luan mentions that, Luna recalls one time when her sister assists her in putting on a very complicated Prince costume for a charity event. Although Luna can pull off an impressive Prince, her costume did not do any favors for its tightness and layers. "That was different, bruh. This is a huge deal, tonight. I am really expecting a lot of faces, and I cannot risk one moment to let it fail up. What people would think of me?" She realizes she reached her apex of anxiety. "You get me, sis?"

Seeing Luna's face of desperation, Luan reaches out to her. "Don't worry, sis. We all have our down moments. But we can at least be positive or less worrying about something."

"Yeah…I suppose so," Luna surmises.

"Come on sis. You're not yourself. You just have to loosen up." Luan then drags her sister up from the floor after stumbling upon the dresses and brings her to the bed. Afterwards, she picks several dresses that might fit for Luna and hands it to her.

"Maybe I'm not a dress person," Luna says. "Probably I could work up a suit and a bow tie, like how mom did once."

"She was in the catering once, but quit," Luan expounds. She keeps encouraging her sister, "Come on, sis! I've been waiting for this moment for you to wear an actual dress."

At her sister's expenses, Luna agrees to try on some of Luan's picks. She tries on a frilly pink dress, but it is too showy and tasteless (for her). She endues herself a puffy gown that fits for a princess but not for a rocker. She turns in on a knee-high lavender cocktail dress, which she finds too fancy and stylish for her taste. On the final pick, she dresses up on a sleeveless purple dress that is serviceable but uncomfortable, due to the sewed-in corset.

But Luan finds it attractive to her. "Wow! I never thought I would see my rebel of a sis in such a beautiful dress. It was a good effort, no matter how much the search have been a-ttire. Hahaha! Get it?"

Luna feels less enthusiastic. She can feel the pressure from the corset pressing to her guts. Nevertheless, she tries to hold it to please Luan. "Yeah…good." Suddenly, one button bursts out of the waistline and ricochets across the room until it hits Luan's forehead, knocking her unconscious somehow.

Minutes go by, and Luan opens her eyes to see Luna trying to wake her up.

"Dude, you okay?" Luna asks.

Luan groans from a near button concussion. "What happened?"

"I tried on the dress you like. But the button hit you on the head. And you got knocked out…"

"Well…that's kind of a pain in the butt-on…"

"Don't stretch that joke, dude."

"Okay, fine." Luan suddenly notices Luna on a different outfit. This time, it is a full-body violet silk dress with loose sleeves and a bright purple sash. Luan is speechless at the sight of her sister. "Luna…you're…"

"Go ahead, sis."

"It looks great! I mean it's your pick. So it's great! It looks great on you. No doubt. I 'don't speak' anything bad about it."

Luna recognizes the unintentional punchline. "Oh I got you bruh…" She then chuckles alongside Luan.

But Luan does not get what Luna understood. "Wait, what did I say?"

"It's fine, dude."

"Well, let's get to the finishing touches." Luan next adorns Luna with suitable makeup, consisting of foundation and lip gloss. All the while, they start chatting like actual sisters.

After hours of fixing her up, Luna expresses her gratefulness to her sister with an embrace. "Thanks dude! With this, I don't think there's anything to worry about."

"I believe in you, sis," Luan replies. "You can pull this off."

"Well, I just hope everything will somehow…pay off. I do believe so."

"You can do this. You're Luna. And you grace everyone with your voice."

"You're right!"

Right on time, a coaster stops in front of their house to fetch Luna. The 15-year-old says her goodbye to her sister and carries her guitar to the vehicle.

* * *

It turns out that the "huge event" that Luna is talking about but makes vague is a quinceañera hosted by the record label who manages Mick Swagger. Luna is called in to serenade to the Latino crowd with the song "Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin and "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones. And greatly, she does, impressing the house band behind her and the celebrant.

After her performance, the crowd goes wild for her. At a distance, she could see Mick Swagger himself giving her a thumbs-up.

She gracefully gives a bow, bravely standing on a dress.


	14. On the Nature of Daylight

_This is a true reaction from a recent huge movie._

Lincoln, Luna, Lynn, Lola and Lana arrive at the cinemas for a free screening for a huge movie that Lincoln is anticipating. The sisters are there to take advantage of the freebies, and Luna wishes to spend her music contest prize money to treat her siblings.

While the girls are being casual about a "free screening", Lincoln attempts to elaborate his anticipation for the movie, "Alright guys, I know this may look like any movie we watched. And I know you might not care for any movie you watch here."

"Might not care?" Lynn disagrees. "Please I might actually care that there is a protein energy bar in this chocolate bar set we bought." She then devours the protein bar wholly.

"Yeah…and not care for any movie we watch here?" Lola questions him. "Have you forgotten the time we watched the fairytale movie I wanted?"

"Oooh, was it the one where I found out my seat had a lot of bubblegum under?" Lana acknowledges, much to Lola's chagrin.

Lincoln then groans, "No, I haven't forgotten about that time. That's why I want to forget about it." To give a little tidbit, the time that two siblings are referencing happened months ago when Lincoln has to join a screening with the twins. The theater is filled with little kids who often roam around and noise a lot. Their behavior got abhorrent when the movie started and the songs were played. No wonder he wants to forget that and not this experience. "Look, the point is I want to make this worthwhile. And I don't want it to get ruined by anyone from you."

"Relax bro," Luna assures. "We won't ruin your movie. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Oh, I know a lot," Lincoln says. From his tone, he is definitely serious about making this trip to movie count. He just hopes that his sisters will stay in their best behavior for about two hours and a half. "Please guys?"

"Yeah sure…" the sisters answer nonchalantly since they never mind what movie is featured.

"Great! Now this will be a start of something new!" With that, the siblings enter inside, sure that they will pass the time munching over a free movie. But one thing is for sure: they do not know what to expect from Lincoln's movie. But for Lincoln, his anticipation and expectations speak for himself.

 _Two and a half hours later…_

The screening ends with a satisfied audience who gave a round of applause in the end. Conversations commence along the way, centering on what transpired from the film. Each has his or her own opinion to the quality of the movie. But the most common denominator from the audience is that they are shocked by the outcome.

The Louds are not safe from the shocking revelation from the movie. From the fanatic to the casual, everyone is speechless. Not one of them can say a word. Not even Lincoln, who is the most excited of them all, has anything to say. They just look to each other with uncertainty, standing still as a crowd disperses behind them.

Few minutes go by, and Luna breaks the ice, "So…I heard of this cool ice cream shop nearby…" She is expecting a reaction, but it does not become effective. "Shall we go?"

The siblings are surprisingly nonchalant about ice cream. Nevertheless, Luna takes them there for rounds of vanilla ice cream with cookie, marshmallow, chocolate chip and nougat bar toppings. Even with an overloaded sweet treat like that would not lift the spirits up for the siblings. Seeing from their astounded eyes, they truly need time to process their mind with what they saw. So, they sit down on a cobbled terrace nearby, pondering…and pondering…and pondering…and pondering.

"Well, I guess we all know what we learned," Lola shares solemnly. "Even the people we love have to…go…"

"We all sometimes have to go…" Lana adds to empathize. "Even innocent creatures have to go. Why do they all have to go?"

"We all…fade away…" Lynn contemplates. "Man, I've never been this deep since the time I dig on Lucy's poem. Now I found a new inspiration."

"I've never been this deep since I got hooked with Simon & Garfunkel. The vision that was planted in my brain still remains," Luna quotes.

"How about you Lincoln?" Lana asks with concern. He doesn't answer. "Lincoln?"

Lincoln gets the most impact from the siblings since he connected with the characters of the film, prior to movie's release. Not that he related to them, but he got invested in their appearances and arcs in the series. So, after a span of silence and reflection, he ponders this thought to his sisters, "Guys, I…shouldn't have brought you here to see the movie."

"No, it's fine bro," Luna reacts. "We're totally fine. It's just what happened…It was cool after all. And awesome. But…"

Lincoln then turns in a sentimental tone, "I know. In the end, when you know that victory was at their hands, but then you know that the tables have turned. And…you lost the people you love…I…I don't know. I have nothing else to say."

"Then don't make the mood more sentimental," Lola chides him. But in the end, she sympathizes to her brother. "But yes, I have to agree. Even the people we love…have to go…"

She shuts her mouth after that, returning to the pondering. And the siblings are left pondering…and pondering…and pondering…and pondering.

* * *

Each passing day, the five children keep reflecting. Never has a movie, which ended with no resolution to its extraordinary heroes, that has them stunned and reflective. Every passing minute has the siblings reflect upon their lives as if they are deep thinkers imagining themselves walking on a think piece with the music "On the Nature of Daylight" by Max Richter playing in their minds.

But the moment comes on what they need to do soften the blow.

Starting with Lincoln, he confesses this to his father, "Dad, I am kind of scared of middle school. I mean it's not bad. But from what I've heard, I…I don't know."

"Now son, it's okay," Lynn Sr. empathizes to his child. "I am scared too. But there are scarier things out there, like electric bills…and that movie I saw…which one was it?"

"Dad?"

"The point is son. It's normal to be scared. But I believe you'll make it."

"I don't know. Sometimes I don't know I can even overcome my fear now."

Lynn Sr. then hugs his son to comfort him. "There, there. Just let it pass. You'll not be scared for long." Just as Lincoln confides to his father's care, Lynn Sr. then recalls, "Oh yeah, that movie, where the villain wins and some of the heroes died."

"Wait, you watched that movie too?"

"I did. I think I got an early screening two days before. And…I still can't get over that ending."

Lincoln exchanges an embrace to his dad. "Me too, dad." And the two partake in an another of tender, love and care over an emotionally heavy movie.

Meanwhile, the rest of the siblings partake in many moments of caring, just as the violin number "On the Nature of Daylight" plays in their heads.

Lola gives Lana a jar of flies for Hops, while Lana gives up the dolls she stole from Lola. Seeing the exchange, they give each other a hug.

Lynn visits her injured baseball teammate in her house and gives her tokens and messages from the team. The teammate is pleased in the end, even as Lynn tries and fails to play the violin to her.

Luna excuses herself from her band to volunteer for a shelter for the homeless. Learning that their conditions are hopeless, she encourages them with an inspiring guitar instrumental, which soothes the people in there

It goes on from there. Lola acknowledges the effort from Lisa in tutoring her. Lana seeks comfort from her older sisters, Lori and Leni, when she shares her to them about her nightmares. Lynn visits Lucy in her poetry recital and applauds to her, a rare occurrence for Lynn. Luna confides to her mother about peer pressure, where she ultimately confesses her need of a mother figure. Lincoln helps Luan cope up after discovering something about one of her comedy idols. Along the way, the siblings express their love for their family, highlighting that it will be so hard to lose them. Though the rest of the Louds find this strange, they accept it anyway.

* * *

In the end, Lincoln, Luna, Lynn, Lola and Lana meet up again at that same yogurt stand for another moment of reflection.

Lynn has this to say, "The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma." Most of them raise an eyebrow from that.

"Well, I guess we all learned a lesson…" Lincoln says, to which all of them agree to.

But Lola derails the moment with this, "But I think the bad guy looks cool." Everybody glares at her after. "What?"


	15. Infinity Woes

Continuing from the previous story, Lincoln, Luna, Lynn, Lola and Lana continue their streak of spreading good will to the people they know. They extend their reach to an orphanage by giving them food and leading them for a song number.

While those acts are truly welcome, Lori, Leni, Luan, Lucy and Lisa still find themselves aloof from their siblings' sudden good will spreading.

As the five go on their weekly charity activity, the remaining five (not including Lily) gather to the meeting room (a.k.a. Lori and Leni's room) and discuss to themselves on what has been going on with the rest that lead to be proactively charitable.

"Okay, this has been literally been bugging me for some time," Lori shares. "I really thought that Lola was gonna squish my hands when she tells me to offer my hand to her. But…she didn't. She just returned to me the earrings he borrowed from me."

"Doesn't sound that bad," Lucy remarks.

"I know right?" Lori says.

"What's so bad about it?" Luan asks.

"She said, 'I'll try my best not to be bratty to you'," Lori answers.

"Okay, that's characteristically unlike Lola," Lucy utters.

"I say the sun ain't getting bratter for Lola. Hehehe. Get it?" Luan quips, annoying the rest.

"Tell me, why is this very relevant that you have to set up a crucial meeting for this?" Lisa asks.

"Because we are their siblings, and we need to know what's going on," Lori says.

"I say let's go on an adventure!" Leni encourages them from out of the blue. "Right?"

"Leni, we have to literally go back learning how to properly come up your words."

"I know how they come up. They come up out of nowhere."

Luan lets out a chuckle from this. "Zing! That's good segue, Leni."

But the rest are not amused.

Lisa points out, "Okay, if we indeed learn about the reason why Lincoln and company go extending community service, what then?"

Then Lori aggressively answers her question, "Then I would not go and worry to death! You know how much worrying decreases the glow to the skin."

"Yes I do," Lisa straightly answers.

"Well, if that's the case, where would we start?"

"Let's get a rundown. Lucy, when did you notice Lynn being so nice to you?"

"I don't know. She was extra nice since last week. Can't tell. But I think it was after she saw that movie with Lincoln."

"What movie was it?"

When Lori addresses that question, the five check out Lincoln's drawer to find the movie ticket he kept as a memento. After Luan retrieves it, the group learns about the movie.

"Oh, that one," Luan says.

"That stupid movie that Bobby keeps talking about?" Lori points out.

"Not truly acquainted with Western motion picture gobbledygook. So, it's off my mental capacity," Lisa implies.

"Me too," Luan agrees.

"I take pass on this," Lucy says. "I have to unearth a preserved alligator skull."

But Lori unleashes her authority to them. "Oh no, you guys are watching the movie with me."

"And why?"

"Because I said so!" At her word, the four become a little nervous about Lori' sudden burst of authority. "Also, if you don't come with me, I'll not take you to the museum or the prank store. Do I make myself clear?"

The gulp from Luan's throat seems to answer that.

"Good. We take the evening screenings, whether you like it or not!"

And boom, the five set off to the theaters and arrive at 7:51 for the 9:00 PM screening. But a large queue of excited moviegoers deters their hopes for a decent preview.

Lori tries to hold her impatience by inhaling deeply.

"So, this is a modern-day audience?" Lisa remarks. "I just hope it retains this quality from old nickelodeons of the last century."

"Wait, Nickelodeon has been from the last century?" Leni asks to her. "Now, I feel old."

Lucy also shares about her experience in the movies. "Not a fan of crowds."

"Why? Aren't there crowds in the _Edwin_ movies?" Luan asks.

"There are. That's why I watch in the morning."

"Don't know how you did that. But seems fair."

As the queue is about to enter the cinema itself, Lori takes a sigh of relief in front of her sisters, "Finally! I just hope this movie will literally give us answers. If it bums me out…"

But Luan assures, "Lori, you said it yourself. It's a stupid movie. Why would it bum you out now?"

They finally enter the screen. And with zero knowledge of the movie, outside of mentions in social media, they are not prepared for what will transpire.

 _Two and a half hours later…_

Like Lincoln's screening, it ends with a satisfied audience who gave a round of applause in the end. Conversations commence along the way, centering on what transpired from the film. Each has his or her own opinion to the quality of the movie. But the most common denominator from the audience is that they are shocked by the outcome.

Lori, Leni, Luan, Lucy and Lisa are not safe from the emotional impact that the movie delivered. Once they get out of the movie house, they face each other with distress, not knowing where to go next. The impact that Lori felt is so striking that she has to sit out on a nearby café.

The rest just stand and wait for her to take action.

Five minutes go by, and Leni asks, "So, what now?"

Each of them is unable to say anything. They are still taken away by what happened in the ending. None of them dare to react or give an opinion. They are just still.

But, from out of the blue, Lucy remarks, "That's beauty: some of us have to fade away. It's life."

Lori abruptly says, "Can we call this a night?"

With that, the four agree, and they go home with their heads trying to pick up what they watched and why it ended that way. It is a long stretch for them trying to adjust for bed.

* * *

The next morning, Lori goes downstairs to find her surroundings weirdly draped in an orange hue. She walks to the dining room to see Lincoln, Luna, Lynn, Lola and Lana eating breakfast. "Oh hey guys! Didn't expect you here."

"Hey Lori! We didn't know you would be here," Lincoln says with a large grin.

"What? You literally didn't know I would be here?"

"Yeah dude, we weren't expecting you. We thought you lived," Luna bizarrely implies.

"I lived?"

"Yes. It is happy you lived. Don't worry about us," Lynn assures.

"We are happy to accept our fates," Lana says.

"And we are glad to be at peace," Lola adds.

This furthermore scares Lori, as she knows that her siblings are not themselves. "No guys. No. You are not like this."

"It's okay Lori. We're fine," Lincoln hauntingly guarantees, but not before he and the rest of his siblings fade to dust from her sight.

"No! Don't go please! Lincoln! Luna! Lynn! Lola! Lana!" She calls them out. But none responds. Fear is on her eyes as she witnesses her surroundings fade out of sight. "Guys come back! PLEASE!"

* * *

At the top of her lungs, Lori screams herself to wake up. The entire scene she witnessed was only a nightmare that almost felt real for the oldest Loud sibling. When she wakes up, she sees Leni, Luan, Lucy and Lisa surrounding her.

"Lori, are you okay?" Luan asks.

"That was a heck of a nightmare," Lori utters.

"We heard you screaming," Leni says. "Are you fine, Lori?"

"Yeah! Where's Lincoln?" After she sees him nowhere to be found, Lori bursts out of the door and sprints towards Lincoln's room. She barges through his door to see him nowhere. "Lincoln! No! Please! Lincoln!" Her hopes are easily lost. She falls to the floor as she grieves for her brother.

But suddenly, Lincoln turns up from the door, having arrived from the bathroom. "Lori?"

"Oh Lincoln!" She immediately embraces his out of relief. "I thought I lost you!"

"I'm not gone, Lori." After a while, he accepts her hug for a minute. "Okay, you can let go now."

"Just get used to do this for a while," Lori says while she holds him tightly. "I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go."

Meanwhile, Leni, Luan, Lucy and Lisa race to the scene.

"You almost left us hanging there," Luan says.

"What's going on?" Lincoln asks.

"Lori had a nightmare. And I think I know why," Lucy says.

"What is it?" Lincoln then hears Lucy trying to keep her composure. "Come here."

Lucy then accepts Lincoln's offer for a hug. Luan, Leni and Lisa do the same, and they comfort each other.

"It was a tough watch," Luan says.

"Oh…the movie?" Lincoln asks.

His sisters never give any answer. He finally realizes what they did. And from that, he firmly holds them in the embrace. It is another touching moment between the siblings that they cannot unravel.

"Don't go…" Lori says as she and the rest let the scene flow as if hearing "On the Nature of Daylight" once again.

For the next day, Lori and the rest join the other siblings in their next charity event, hoping it can cope up with such an emotional impact of a movie.

All is well. And they all go well.


	16. The Day After Mothers' Day

Yearly, it is always a delight for the Loud children to throw a Mother' Day surprise to their mother, Rita Loud. However, that is not the case for this year when Rita was absent for the entire Sunday, due to a dentist convention she has to attend to. But there is a wider story from that.

For now, on early Monday morning, 1:11 AM, she arrives home with a heavier suitcase and drabs of souvenirs adorned on her entire body, from head to toe. It had been a grand trip for the Loud House matriarch, whether for better or for worse.

"Well, that's the entire day's end. Such a hassle! At least there was a free shuttle from the airport," she remarks to herself. "I really do need a good rest when I get inside. I can't even sum up what happened in the airport."

 _Flashback to twelve hours ago_

In New York City, 1:11 PM, Rita Loud arrives at the JFK Airport, right at the wing where the local flights are designated. She just got off from the convention held at Downtown Manhattan.

After taking a deep breath of relief, complete with happy chiming music, she gladly steps inside, thinking that things will go according to plan: take the next flight to Detroit, take a taxi going directly to Royal Woods and celebrate Mothers' Day on time with her family. Lynn Sr. is not around as well, thanks to his shift for a surprise gig for a high-end restaurant, in time for Mothers' Day. Thus, this makes Rita so eager to get home on time.

She approaches the counter and orders a ticket without any hassle. She also places her luggage on the moving conveyor belt.

"Here's your ticket, ma'am. And your boarding pass," the lady in the counter greets her. "Have a nice day. Oh, and a Happy Mothers' Day!"

"Oh, thanks."

"Having fun so far?"

"Oh, not yet. I am coming home for Mothers' Day, so we might be celebrating…if I have time when I return home."

"Just don't worry about it, ma'am. Stay seated, relaxed while waiting for your flight. It's your lucky day."

As Rita walks out from the counter, she is rather pleased with the polite treatment that the cashier showed to her. Normally for her, it would be stressful to deal with on-the-counter tickets. But Mothers' Day is her lucky day.

She finds a spot near a post, designed as a charging station, which has a lot of sockets and USB slots. She finds comfort on the ambience of a busy airport. She hears the usual noise from other people talking, crossed with the intercom announcements and the airport lounge music. But generally, she is just happy to wait for her flight.

But minutes go by, her uneasiness kicks in, prompting her to pull out her tablet and video call Lori. Immediately, Lori answers. "Hey sweetie, how's it going in the house?"

" _Hey mom!_ " Lori says from the other line. " _Was able to get everyone tidied up for morning rituals. I'm kinda sleepy though._ "

"Yeah, I know…from this morning when I called you."

" _Oh, sorry about that, mom. I tried to stay literally awake. Maybe it was all night browsing at the shopping site. I was trying to look for that dress you are talking about._ "

Mrs. Loud chuckles. "Lori, you don't need to buy me that dress.

On Lori's line, Lincoln notices Lori calling their mom. " _Hey Lori, is that mom? Hey mom!_ "

"Hey Lincoln! Nice to your face for a while…"

" _It was great. You won't believe…_ "

However, Lori backs him off, thinking it will interfere with their "surprise". " _Lincoln, don't expose yourself too much. You might ruin the surprise._ "

" _Don't worry, everything's fine with our…'not' surprise._ "

Ironically, a blast is heard from the other line. Mrs. Loud asks in concern, "Hey! What's going on there? Why did I hear an explosion?"

She hears Lisa coaxing to her sisters in the background, " _Lana,_ _I told you not to play with the pyrotechnic samples!_ "

"Pyrotechnic samples?!"

Lori assures, even in a tense situation, " _Don't worry mom. Everything will be literally okay. Gonna call you later!_ "

"Lori, wait! Don't drop the…" But it is too late; Lori drops her call, leaving Mrs. Loud worried. She nearly growls, but she tries to calm down from her worries. "Just calm down. You'll be home soon."

Right on time, the gates open, and the passengers proceed to the plane.

"Oh, we'll be home soon." Mrs. Loud eagerly takes her carry-on bag and finds her seat. (It is along the aisle.) "Okay, right on schedule. Don't need to worry about your kids. And we can celebrate Mothers' Day in peace."

Unfortunately, there comes the sudden intercom announcement from the captain. " _Dear beloved passengers, I am displeased to inform you that our flight has been delayed, due to heavy air traffic in Detroit area. Just remain seated, and our reliable cabin crew will be up for your service. Thank you for your understanding_."

This announcement leaves the passengers groaning, most especially Rita. "Just really?!"

She retains a disgruntled face for the remainder of the delay. Not even the dancing crew members, who all perform to the tune of "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar, entertain her in the slightest. Though during their performance, a flight stewardess offers her a cup of high-caffeine black coffee.

"No, thank you," Rita replies.

"Come on, ma'am. We insist," the stewardess replies.

Like that, Rita accepts black coffee. And later on, she requests for more from the crew. That leaves her in a wearier and more non-adjustable state, especially as the plane finally takes off.

The old woman beside her notices this. "Maybe, you need to slow down with coffee."

"I just can't help it," Rita shares. "I get worried about my kids, even in the simplest things. I just need something to rub it off."

"It's fine. We're mothers. We're made to be worried," the woman advises. "But we're also made to say that we have done our part, and that our kids can handle themselves."

"You know, you're right. Maybe I'm too worried."

"Just sit back and relax, especially as we have to wait again in Indianapolis."

"Yes." But when she hears that news, Rita asks, "Wait Indianapolis?"

"Yes, they divert our flight to Indianapolis. Air traffic in Detroit, they said." Rita is speechless with that news that her expressions range on a stunned awareness. "You didn't pay attention?"

Her fringed expression says it all.

As they land in Indianapolis, Illinois at 7:21 PM, Rita immediately calls Lori on her tablet. But unfortunately, the battery dies out and the tablet quickly shuts down, leaving Rita hopeless.

"Come on! Don't quit on me!" She tries to restart it, to no avail. "Dang it!" She tries to search for an available socket to charge on, but she notices the charging posts are entirely occupied with charging cellphones and cameras. "Dang it! Even at this time!"

The old woman from the flight follows her to the lounge and consoles her. "It's okay, my dear. Last time I have to get home to my kids, a parade showed in the suburbs. I just have to cross the street from where my taxi stopped. But a parade showed up." But when Rita keeps moping, the woman encourages her, "Things like this happen. Let's just ask help from the airlines."

Immediately, Rita's tone shifts, "Oh yeah, like the airline this time would help."

The old woman then leads Rita to the airport wing designated for that airline. While the area is ambient enough, the two walk toward a more special section that, to Rita's absolute surprise, is refurbished into a Mother's Day section.

Everything that the airline would offer is there: massage parlors, free beauty products, a salad bar, a free zumba class, a free spa and a mom's handicraft workshop. Rita has her eyes wide on the amenities that are right in front of her.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" the old woman says. "We have an hour for holdover."

With that, Rita quickly tries everything in one sweep. Zumba. Yoga. Cooking. Salads. Cosmetics. Freebies. Massages. Any mother's answer on escapism. She even gets access to the VIP lounge for first-class passengers for some reason. It is worth the time to take a break from worrying about the kids.

Before her flight finally to Detroit, she purchases a lot of souvenirs, taking advantage of the freebies. The flight leaves at 9:30 PM.

After a two-hour flight, Rita arrives at Detroit at 11:30 PM. It takes long for her to wait for her luggage. Yet she knows that she would not reach her children on time to celebrate Mothers' Day.

Before she calls for a taxi, an airline crew runs to her and says, "Mrs. Loud, we truly apologize for the flight delay. And that we have to divert our path…"

Before he could finish, she replies, "It's fine."

"We just want to make it up with a complimentary shuttle on your way home. What do you say?"

With that delight, Rita accepts.

 _End of Flashback_

"Yes, what a day. I just hope the kids are tucked at bed."

But as Rita unlocks the front door and enters the house, she discovers her own children sleeping in the living room (with Lincoln, Luna, Lynn, Lucy and Lori sleeping in the couch; Luan, Lola and Lily on the recliner; and Leni, Lana and Lisa on the carpet floor). To add more to the shock, the house is decorated with Mothers' Day-related paraphernalia, even with a banner saying "THANK YOU MOM!" Food is also left being flown with flies. Clearly, the kids are waiting for their mom to arrive and expected to throw her a surprise party. But the plan did not fly.

The Loud matriarch then lays her things first in her room and goes back to her children. "Well, there are worse things you could do after Mothers' Day."

With that, Rita properly prepares her kids for bedtime by setting up comforters and sleeping bags for the girls sleeping on the floor and giving blankets and pillows to the rest. After that, she kisses each of them on the forehead. Right before she retires to bed, she whispers, "Thank you too. I love you all."

Now, everybody is tucked to sleep.

But even after two hours, Leni abruptly utters, "What if we go to New York?"

This prompts Lincoln to open his eye.


	17. Best Day Ever (Portrayed by the Louds)

It is a bright and shiny day in Royal Woods, Michigan.

Lincoln gets up, feeling warm and excited. That warm, fuzzy feeling has him greeting the sunshine with a smile to his face and a song to his heart. " _Mr. Sun came up, and he smiled at me…_ "

But in his mind, he almost hear a record screech. He then remarks to the readers, "Sorry for that. I know we have the rights to the song, since we're in the same company. But that's a different story. But anyhow, cue a happy morning!"

Despite not singing the "Best Day Ever" by Tom Kenny, Lincoln still hums on his way to the bathroom, to the halls and towards downstairs. Eventually, he sings the chorus repeatedly, complete with backup chorus. " _It's the best day ever! Best day ever!_ "

He soon encounters Lucy, who was sitting at the end railings of the staircase's left-side handle. Surprisingly, he is not shocked at Lucy's sudden appearance. "Hey Lucy!"

"You seemed positive today," Lucy remarks.

"I know Lucy," Lincoln replies. "Today's going to be the best day ever!"

"Why do you think it will be?"

"Why I think today is the best day ever, you ask? Because, Lucy, I get to start this wonderful day by offering myself in the service of making breakfast for the family. After that, it is an unexpected lucha libre match in the park with Lynn. I'm kind of liked masked wrestling, thanks to her. And because of that, I shall unveil my newest mask with Ace Savvy motifs! They said that some Mexicans wore this mask, and they were invincible. And then, it's all the afternoon between me and my best friend Clyde, and we'll be using the newly-unveiled skating ramp with our bikes! And last but not the least, friends and family will be joining together to see my awesome sister Luna rock it out onstage! I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!"

After that, Lincoln happily marches to the kitchen while he whistles to the tune of "The Best Day Ever". He then pulls out his checklist of "Best Day Ever" activities.

His checklist primarily includes:

Breakfast with the family

Lucha Libra with Lynn

"Extreme" biking with Clyde

Concert with Luna

Still in his humming sound, Lincoln fails to notice his sisters in concern as they try to search for food in the kitchen.

"Anything in the cupboard?" Lola asks.

"Nothing," Lana sadly confirms.

"How about you, Lisa?"

"Negative here," Lisa confirms from checking the cabinet below the sink.

"Not even here inside the fridge," Leni tells them. But she is somehow chewing something.

"Hey! What's that you're eating?!" Lola berates her.

"I don't know," Leni replies. "Kind of tastes like burned or something."

"That's not food, that's charcoal," Lisa confirms, to which Leni immediately spits out.

Lincoln then interrupts, "Hey guys! You're here to help cook breakfast?"

"There is no breakfast, big brother," Lana answers.

"No breakfast?! But the best day ever starts with breakfast," he panics.

"Yeah, but there's none," Leni sighs.

"It's all Lori's fault!" Lola complains. "She's the one in a hurry. And she snatched all of the flapjacks in the fridge."

Not wanting his day to be ruined, Lincoln steps up with a solution. "Not to worry, my dear sisters! Your flapjacks will return!"

After that, he immediately runs back to his room and breaks open his piggy bank. He counts his savings, to safely learn that he earned $20. He quickly rush to the supermarket via speeding shopping cart and buys two cartons of milk, two dozen eggs, two packs of pancake mix and maple syrup. At breakneck pace, he rushes all items and takes them home.

But when he arrives, Lincoln is nearly drained out; and that is the first thing in the morning. "Hey guys! Got…the…flapjacks…" And right away, he passes out

An hour later, the excited 11-year-old wakes up to his sisters (with the exception of Lori, Lynn and Luna) finishing their breakfast of flapjacks and milk.

"Oh heya Lincoln!" Luan greets him. "Glad you're up now. That was kind of a morning rush you did. Hahaha! Get it?"

Lincoln yawns, then utters, "What happened?"

"You fainted while you're about to deliver the groceries," Lisa dryly answers.

"And we made flapjacks," Lana finishes. "But we left you some."

He then notices the scrumptious breakfast in front of him. "Oh thanks guys!"

"Thanks Lincoln!"

But as he is about to take a munch, Charles and Cliff suddenly snatch one of his flapjacks, leaving him with none. The dismay on his face says it all.

* * *

After a disappointing breakfast, Lincoln marks the entry with an "X". "Well, that sure is a bummer. But there's still three-fourths of the day! To Lynn!"

With that, he takes his bicycle to the park and positions himself at a spot with a good vantage point to where Lynn on a makeshift ring is practicing her wrestling moves.

Lincoln puts on his red Ace Savvy-themed wrestling mask and strategizes a way to strike Lynn. "Here's the stance! And here's the jump!" He then leaps to the air and aims to land on top of Lynn.

Lynn, meanwhile, immediately spots her brother from above. So, she moves paces away from his landing position, making him land face first to the ground.

"Ouuuuchhhhh…"

"Lincoln, save the sneak attacks for later!" Lynn insists.

"Yeah right, you pro!" Lincoln then notices something from his athletic sister. "Hey, where's your wrestling mask?"

She shushes him. "Quiet bro. We're under attack."

"Under attack? From whom?"

"Some untamed dogs suddenly entered the ring a while ago. And they mauled my mask off. But I was able to climb that tree. But they will be back. So be on the watch."

"Really? Untamed dogs? How could a bunch of canines be a conceivable threat to us?"

Just as it is good timing, the street dogs show up from behind them, intimidating them with their growls. Immediately, the brother and the sister scram away, giving chase for the dogs. "AHHHH!"

The chase leads for the ring to be trampled and for the siblings to cling on a tree branch.

"We'll be safe here!" Lynn hesitatingly assures. But the dogs push the tree hard, making Lincoln dangle on the edge. "Never mind!"

One dog then leaps towards Lincoln and bites his mask. "Hey! Get away! That's my mask!" But the mask slips off his face, and the dogs try to munch it out.

"Nobody ruins my brother's wrestling mask!" Lynn proclaims. She takes an inexplicably grown vine from the tree and swings over the dogs to retrieve Lincoln's mask. Thankfully, when she gets it, there are no bite marks. But seemingly, the dogs turn towards Lynn, attracted by the hue from Lincoln's mask. "Hey! You want this, dogs?!"

They bark in agreement.

"Lynn, what you're doing?" Lincoln asks.

"Saving your life!" Lynn answers. She then leaps over them and land behind the pack to lead them away from the tree. "Don't worry! I'll keep your mask safe! See you at the concert!" Just like that, the dogs give chase to a sprinting Lynn, leaving Lincoln perturbed.

* * *

Immediately, while sulking at the park, Lincoln rechecks his list and crosses out "Lucha Libre with Lynn". "No breakfast? No lucha libre?! Well, at least that leads me to extreme biking with…"

Right on cue, he spots Clyde doing freestyle moves on his bicycle. A few paces from him is a ramp, commonly used for extreme wheel sports.

"There's my best friend now!" Lincoln then obtains his bike from earlier and goes to Clyde. "Wait for me, Clyde!" But as he gets back, he sees Clyde looking worried. "Clyde, what's wrong?"

"Lincoln! My bike got flattened!" Clyde tells him. "I accidentally landed my bike on a nail. And it pierced on it. Now I can't use my bike on the ramp. I heard they will close it down tomorrow. And now, I'm going to lose my chance to ride on it."

"Well…" Lincoln is about to suggest to Clyde.

But the McBride kid gets a better idea from Lincoln's bicycle. "Wait Lincoln, can I…your bike?"

"My bike?"

"Please Lincoln!"

Feeling sympathy for his best friend, Lincoln lets Clyde borrow his bike (for a while). Clyde is truly overjoyed when experiencing to slide up and slide down from the ramp, like an X-Games pro. He seizes every second on the ramp, while Lincoln watches in worry from below.

"Uhmmm Clyde, it's my turn now," Lincoln calls him, but Clyde does not notice him. "Clyde? Oh Clyde! Earth to One-Eyed Jack! It's my turn now." After failed attempts to call him, Lincoln resorts to offering his bike to his best friend for a while. "I guess I'll see you at Luna's concert."

* * *

Lincoln then sulkily forces his way to Luna's concert for the night. He tries to sing "Best Day Ever" but could not in all the good reason. He looks again at this checklist and crosses out "'Extreme' biking with Clyde". "No breakfast, no lucha libre, no biking? I only got Luna's concert! I'm not gonna let anything ruin this!"

But as he marches to the auditorium, Lincoln sees Luna looking nervous outside. "Luna, why you're here? Why are you not inside, rocking it out to your fans?"

"Dude, my concert is ruined!" she bemoans. "My pick got ripped to half. See?" She then shows Lincoln her guitar broken into half. "I tried to reach an awesome note. But at the cost of my pick."

"Why don't you ask for another?"

"Dude, this is the luckiest one I ever have. Whenever I used it, I feel free to jam! But it's gone."

Though Luna has her spirits down, a determined Lincoln is not going to quit lifting up his sister's spirits. "Luna…"

But she keeps wailing.

Immediately, Lincoln holds her down and convinces her, "Luna, you're a rock star, not a drama queen. And a rock star always finds a way to improvise a beat! I came to this place to see my awesome sister perform!"

"But my pick!"

Being the empathetic brother that he is, Lincoln snatches Luna's broken pick and pieces it back together using a super glue. "There. Now shred, Luna!"

"Bro…"

"Shred, Luna, like you never shred before!"

At his conviction, Luna strums one string of her electric guitar to her absolute relief. She then strums one more time until she completely shreds her instrument to an eleventh degree. "Awesome bro!" With that, she gets back inside with her restored confidence.

Lincoln follows up to her but gets stopped by the usher.

"Where do you think you're going, sonny boy?" the usher asks.

"I'm going to see my sister perform," Lincoln replies. "Today's my best day ever."

"Yeah, and my best friend is Dave Grohl. Where's your ticket?"

"My ticket? Let's see…" Lincoln tries to search on every pocket for his supposed ticket. An hour has gone by, and no search for his ticket. "Just a minute sir. It's somewhere."

"Look kid, if you don't have any ticket, I suggest you go home."

But Lincoln pleads, "No please! I don't want to ruin this day any further. I have my ticket!" However, the usher remains undeterred.

Abruptly, Mrs. Johnson enters the scene, wishing to also see Luna perform. She notices her student, "Lincoln, why are you not inside?"

"You know this boy?" the usher asks.

"Yes, that's Lincoln Loud, one of my best students," Mrs. Johnson says.

"Yeah absolutely." But the usher suddenly realizes that Lincoln is one person reserved for a special seat. "Wait, did you say Lincoln Loud? Why mate, you're one of our special guests!"

Right away, the usher leads him inside the auditorium and to the front seat of Luna's concert. Already, the crowd is wild and crazy over Luna's jam.

Though Lincoln recognizes the presence of his sisters and Clyde. "A seat next to my sisters? And my best friend? I made it! I guess this day is indeed the best day after…" But, upon his arrival, Luna was down to her last gig, and the concert is finished.

"Thank you, Royal Woods!" Luna shouts to the crowd, to which they cheer loudly.

But Lincoln, at his breaking points, would not accept it. "NO! NO! IT CAN'T BE OVER!"

"Yes Lincoln, it's over," Lori says to him.

Lincoln immediately climbs upstage and snatches the microphone. "Today was supposed to be the best day of my life. But it all flipped upside down."

"We're not here for your spoken word," one heckler says as he gets up.

"SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" The heckler then sits down. "CAN'T YOU GET WHAT I FEEL? Of having your day be filled with disappointment."

The first people to intervene him is, most definitely, his sisters and Clyde.

"Lincoln, we literally get it. It's okay," Lori calms him down.

"It's not okay," Lincoln whines. "Do you know how it feels to not make breakfast or eat breakfast with you?"

"We know," the twins reply.

"So we decided to make it up to you," Leni says. She then shows Lincoln a chocolate cake that she and her sisters baked for him, which is rather a sophomore effort. "It was not much but that's the best we can do."

"Well, thanks. But how about lucha libre?"

"Your mask was really a good diversion for the dogs that I pound them!" Lynn brags. "Or sent them to the pound. But your mask is still good." She then returns her brother's mask.

"Woah, I never thought it would be that way."

Clyde then connects the dots. "Yeah, and us biking, I really wished you were there. Because after I rode the whole ramp, some sports journalists who wanted to cover about that old skating ramp saw me and admired the performance. And they give me this." Clyde then pulls out a biker's gear. "I owe it to you, buddy. As a thank you."

Lincoln receives the gear to his full delight. "Oh boy, Clyde, you're a genuine friend!"

"And dude, you helped me regain my soul to rock once more with the help of your super glue!" Luna encourages him. "Kinda weird to say. But it's all I mean!"

Lori then shares to him, "You see, Lincoln, a list doesn't define your 'best day ever'."

"But it's the moments that you seized!" Luan continues.

"With friends," Clyde adds.

"And family!" the twins exclaim.

Feeling the compassion from his loved ones, Lincoln is out of words to describe the moment. "Wow guys, I never knew that all of you would always be there by my side."

"We're family," Lucy responds. "We'll always be there."

Lori then follows it up, "Well, since we're family, we wanna make it up to you."

"Really?" Lincoln reacts.

"Anything, Lincoln. Just tell us."

With that in mind, Lincoln gazes to those reading this chapter and clarifies, "Well, if you think we're completely ripping off an episode from an undersea cartoon, well…"

* * *

Jump to twenty minutes later, and the entire gang ends up at a karaoke bar, singing out _SpongeBob_ songs that somehow snuck in to their play request list.

But the most requested of all is, of course, "Best Day Ever" that the siblings, but most definitely Lincoln, keep singing for the entire night.

In the end, Lincoln keeps singing: " _It's the best day ever_ _!_ _Best day ever_ _!_ " But the rest ends up left in the bar and sleeping on the seats.

"How long do we have to keep this up, dude?" Luna asks Lori.

"Just till he gets sick of this song, Luna," Lori answers. "Or till his heart gives out."


	18. Missed Congeniality

One day, Lincoln is walking back to his room when he sees the door to the twins' room is partly open. He is knowledgeable that each of the twins has her errands for the day. So, it is kind of peculiar to see one of them at home early.

"Lola? Lana?" Lincoln checks them out. He opens the door wider to see a horrifying revelation. Stuffed toys are scattered around. The teapot table was flipped to the wall. The trophy case was collapsed towards Lola's bed. And a gown was torn apart on the floor. Lincoln immediately figures out whose doing it is. "Lola! You can come out now. Lola?"

"Go away," she tells him. Her voice is not far from where Lincoln's is standing. He stumbles upon the bookshelf near the window, where he sees Lana's mattress leaning against the wall, almost like a set up for a fort with blankets and pillows piled up.

Lincoln trudges through the soft materials and finally sees his sister Lola in her sleep attire facing behind. "Hey…Lola…what happened?"

"Just go away. I don't want to talk about it," she sternly tells him.

"Well, if you can't talk about it, you will stay this way forever," Lincoln replies.

She eventually faces him. "That's why I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!" From the looks of it, her eyeliner dripped on her face from the tears she shed.

Lincoln realizes the weight that his little sister has to carry. He truly wants to help her sister out from her personal crisis. But he sees the wall that Lola set up to avoid confronting the "tragedy" again. "Look Lola, in life, you don't always win pageants or get trophies all the time…"

"That's why it's unfair," Lola replies. "I worked so hard to maintain my beauty. But why this?!" She is about to break down again. "Just get away, Lincoln. You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't understand because you haven't told me the whole story. How would I understand if you can't share anything?"

Still, Lola remains mum.

But Lincoln tries to analyze Lola's failure. He then spots a torn-up certificate of participation on the floor. "Okay, you lost the pageant. You never got an award. Happens to all of us."

"But everything feels perfect. I practiced. I practiced."

"From your gown portion?"

"I practiced."

"From the talent portion?"

"I practiced. Okay Lincoln?"

"Well, how about the question and answer portion?"

"I practiced that too. I really practiced what I feel in my heart and said the things I want."

From the way she answers it, Lincoln might have traced the reason why Lola lost her latest beauty pageant. "Alright, what was the question given to you?"

"The judge asked, 'In our current state of the country…and other children whatever…what is the best thing you can do?' I answered, 'Show my beauty to the world to say that beauty is everything.' That doesn't sound so bad. It's not even a wrong answer."

"It's not really a wrong answer."

"I know right? The judge must be bogus. He's an old man."

"But it maybe because it's not the answer they are looking for."

"Well, what do they need? The other girls were like 'we like to save the world' or something like that. Why is that a thing?"

Lincoln then sighs at his reflection that his little sister only sees a material aspect in participating beauty pageants or being an experienced beauty queen. "I guess there are lot of things you have to learn about beauty pageants, Lola."

"Like what?"

"Like…being able to pull off question and answer portions easily."

"It's just a Q&A. Kids can make whimsy stuff all the time. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal? Let me show you the big deal." He then walks out of the room to lead his sister to the living room.

"I'm not going out there."

"Alright, I'll just leave you here and tell mom that you're room became messy. And that she'll force you to clean it…"

"Never mind!" Lola hurriedly scoots off, dragging her big brother with her.

Lincoln then shows her a DVD and inserts it on the player. "Now, watch and learn."

"Lincoln, is this another of those teary-eyed movies you and Lori kept?"

"Nope, here it is." Lincoln then cues the video to fast forward to a montage of classic Q&A portions from beauty pageant contestants. As it stops at the montage of some mediocre Q&A portions, Lincoln makes the fast forward option faster, stopping at the prestigious Q&A portions.

The summary of it is a range of contestants with an excellent poise, a perfect English and a hefty amount of knowledge in world issues.

"Are you getting it?" Lincoln asks Lola.

"Not sure, but I need a dictionary to understand this," she answers.

Lincoln then clicks the pause option on the video. "Look Lola, you're a beautiful and charming contestant. We've been there and it's so easy for us to improve on. But there's also this part too."

"Please? What's the big deal?"

Lincoln secretly grunts to himself, not wanting to ape the same reaction his sister has. So, he continue the video where it cuts to some inspiring Q&A portions, where the contestants, even junior ones, go bolder in their advocacies.

One particular portion brings a sudden impact to Lola.

From the video, the judge asks, " _If you are to win this pageant, you are to be given the prestigious title as Ms. Beauty Queen. What do you think is your biggest responsibility as Ms. Beauty Queen?_ "

The contestant, a teenager of color, answers this, " _Well, it would be a great honor to be crowned as Ms. Beauty Queen. But more than that, I already have a responsibility that I think is a priority as Ms. Beauty Queen. And this is to be a good role model to my friends and family. But given the title, I would vow to go beyond and inspire other girls that no matter what they have been through or their background is, they can achieve their dreams in their own strength, their own smarts and their own courage to see this dark world in a brighter light. With or without the title, I encourage those little girls like me to take courage, be a role model and inspire others to do the same. Thank you."_

Her speech brings a little doubt on Lola. Her method on winning pageants with just a childlike poise and exceptional beauty seems to bring some holes. She only senses one thing from that contestant, and that is being inspired.

Lola reflects upon that speech throughout the day that her eyes remain wide open and stunned.

"Lola, are you okay?" Lincoln asks.

"I am fine. I just need a time in my room," Lola utters. She walks almost lifelessly back to her wrecked bedroom. She glances upon her awards that she gained from various beauty contests. With remorse, she places them back into shape and even fixes the glass casing. "Am I doing it wrong, Lola?" And out of place, she remarks, "Because this is out of character for me. But Lincoln's right." She takes a deep sigh, firmly swallowing her doubts to let go off her pride.

* * *

The next morning, on another gathering with her fellow beauty pageant contestants, Lola arrives, for a rare moment, in a pink shirt and cargo pants.

The other girls are shocked at Lola's getup since she is known to always wear her pink dress wherever she goes.

A girl named Grace, winner of the pageant, walks up to her. "Lola, this is rare. You look…"

Before she can finish, Lola interrupts her, "Hold on Grace. There's something I need to say."

"Uhmmm sure…"

"Look, I have been so unaccepting of you winning. But I know I've been unfair. But…you deserve it. So, I want to congratulate you." Lola quickly offers her hand of congratulations.

"Oh, this is rare," Grace comments.

"Just take it before I change my mind. But seriously, you deserve it."

Grace then willingly shakes Lola's hand, signaling for the girls to stand up and cheer. "Aww thanks Lola." She then gives the bratty 6-year-old an embrace.

"Okay, you can start by not being too clingy."

"Come on."

"Fine." Lola gradually accepts Grace's hug. The girls keep cheering for them.

"So, joining the post-pageant tea party?"

"Nah, I have other things to take care of. I need something else other than my beauty pageants."

"Well, hope you have fun."

Before they part ways, Lola and Grace hug once more.

Later on, Lola enters a school civics club, where she gives a profound argument about diversity in Royal Woods. Everyone is stunned.


	19. ABBA Goes Loud - Act 1

At the Loud House, Lisa is working on a new scheme, connecting one of her contraptions to another. In this case, she connects a full-body pod, originally designed to store cryogenically frozen bodies, to a gas emitter machine, wired with a jukebox.

If this arrangement is rather complicated to how this will all work, the mad genius explains it: "Right, I think the scheme is complete. As you know, my kindergarten teacher gave us an assignment to effectively play an instrument. So for this case, a synthesizer is the best instrument for the intellectually inclined. But this capable genius has little ability to practice playing the keyboards over the course of an enclosed 168 hours, even though my neurons would quickly store information from a Swedish dictionary for less than 3 hours. This requires mastery. Now, with the jukebox to synthesize music, the sensory information will be converted to gas. Thus, processing it in the miniature plant and releasing it to the pod, which I, yours truly, will store herself. Thus, making me easily breathe the skills of playing the synthesizer. Are we all clear on that?"

All this time, Lisa is laying this overloaded information to her baby sister Lily, who just jollily claps her hands to her genius sister.

"You're a fine specimen," Lisa remarks. "But no time to lose." She quickly converts to a safety body suit and boards the pod, making it close as it detected her presence. From the inside, the 4-year-old switches the machine to be operational. The jukebox plays a generic electronic music track that is converted to gas for Lisa to intake. "Nothing will jeopardize this operation."

Surely enough, from the outside, Lola and Lana are horseplaying from out of their room, and try to wrestle each other. Lola gets the upper hand by powerfully slamming Lana to the wall.

"I'm taking the top!" Lola boasts.

"Oh yeah, princess?" Lana mocks her and tackles her playfully.

Their rough play causes a tremble on Lisa and Lily's room, and for a coffee mug from a top shelf to fall on the jukebox, making switch to another track, a disco one with one distinctive group of artists. The coffee meanwhile falls to the wirings of the gas emitter and causes it to short circuit.

"What the?!" Lisa jinxes, hearing the commotion outside. She quickly gets out from the pod and fixes up the wiring. She also hears the random trembles from Lola and Lana's wrestling.

"I beat you this time!" Lana exclaims, standing on top of Lola.

"Will you halfwits consider the other occupants of the household?!" Lisa rebukes them. "I am conducting an experiment. And I disoblige disturbance."

"Oh sorry for bursting your bubble on your experiments, Lisa," Lana mockingly replies.

"We're talking about highly hazardous gases that you should not intake," Lisa argues.

"Then why are you taking it?" Lola counters her argument, aggravating Lisa.

But a loud explosion takes place inside the room. The three check out the commotion to see the gas emitter overloading and passing the reactive gas to the pod.

But being it unconcealed, the musically concocted gas passes around the room and to the nostrils of the younger Louds.

Lola coughs it out. "What the heck is this gas?! What you put in here?!"

Lisa quickly checks the jukebox to see it play a different track, a more upbeat one than the generic one. But this brings horror to her eyes. "Oh no. You wouldn't want to know what's coming next."

When Lisa implied about considering "the other occupants of the household", she is not only referring to the Louds. The gas then spreads to the entire house, affecting guests in the household like Lincoln's posse (composing of Clyde, Liam, Zack and Rusty), Lori's friends, Lynn's teammates, Sam, Roxanne, Haiku, Giggles and Girl Jordan. It takes effect in the Loud House, culminating in one giant blow and changing the aura of the house in its entirety.

Luckily or unluckily, Darcy is not able to witness the "catastrophe" as she drops by at the house to help Lisa on her assignment. She rings the doorbell, "Hello? Lisa? Are you home?"

A glittery gas goes out from the door, which sparks her interest. With no doubt, Darcy opens the front door to see the Loud House all glittery and 70's themed. From out of nowhere, Lola, Lana and Lisa slide down, wearing in disco jumpsuits and possessing microphones. With their distinctive getup, they begin to sing this song:

 _My my_

 _At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender_

 _Oh yeah_

 _And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way_

 _The history book on the shelf_

 _Is always repeating itself_

 _Waterloo I was defeated, you won the war_

 _Waterloo promise to love you for ever more_

 _Waterloo couldn't escape if I wanted to_

 _Waterloo knowing my fate is to be with you_

 _Waterloo finally facing my Waterloo_

After that number, Lola, Lana and Lisa immediately snap back to normal (for now) and realize the getup that they are in. "Ewwww!"

"What the heck is this outdated suit thing on my body?!" Lola complains.

"Girly jumpsuit! Ahhhh!" Lana screams.

"Darcy, what the heck are you doing here?" Lisa asks.

"I was gonna help you in our music assignment," Darcy answers. "What's up with your outfit? Are you going with a theme here?"

"No, there's an explanation to all of this." Lisa then explains everything. "The jukebox should convert the music to gas to make a specimen able to possess spontaneous musical capacity."

"Which means?" Lana asks.

"I placed a musical gas in the entire house!" Lisa exclaims. "But it's not any music. It's…"

Before she can continue, Dana and Becky burst from the room and to downstairs.

 _Mamma mia, here we go again_

 _My my, how can we resist you?_

 _Mamma mia, does it show again_

 _My my, just how much I've missed you_

Then, Lori slides to her knees, wearing a white glam disco suit and singing this part:

 _Yes, I've been brokenhearted_

 _Blue since the day we parted_

 _Why, why did I ever let you go?_

All of the girls present, except for Darcy, sing the next verse.

 _Mamma mia, now I really know_

 _My my, I could never let you go_

They immediately snap back to normal, fully recognizing the outfits they had on.

"Why am I literally wearing mom's glitter dance suit?" Lori whines. "This is so 70's."

"It kind of looks fit for you, Lori," Becky remarks, upsetting Lori.

Lisa then reminds to all, "Just a warning to everyone present in this house, it will be a nonstop Swedish disco sing-along at this time for the next twelve hours."

"And what is this about?" Lori confronts her.

"Long story, _you wouldn't want to know the name of the game_ ," Lisa implies, then immediately realizes she namedrop an ABBA song. "Did I just said that?"

Abruptly, Clyde appears from upstairs in another glam suit, with Lincoln, Rusty, Liam and Zack in similar fashion. He then belts out his soulful voice to Lori:

 _If you change your mind, I'm the first in line_

 _Honey I'm still free_

 _Take a chance on me_

But Lori immediately say, "No!"

Their song number comes to a screeching halt, to which Clyde implies, "Okay, noted."

"What do you suggest we do, Ms I-Want-To-Know-How-To-Play-Music?" Lola asks Lisa mockingly.

"According to my diagnostics, you just have to wait it until the end of the day," Lisa answers. " _There's no hurry any more when all is said and done_." She realizes she quotes another ABBA song again. "Goodness, what do I keep doing that? How come my cognitive responses keep conjuring knowledge on a Swedish disco pop group?"

"I suppose you shouldn't _slipping through your fingers all the time_ ," Lori says but never realizes throwing a reference.

Clyde then spontaneously responds, "Well, I say…"

 _Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing_

 _Thanks for all the joy they're bringing_

 _Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty_

 _What would life be?_

 _Without a song or a dance what are we?_

"What are you? Not annoying!" Lola mocks him again.

Clyde then freezes in shame, anime style.

Lincoln addresses, "How do we keep up with this stuff and this outfit?"

"Well, we could always hit the chicks with this glam suit and throw 70's pickup lines," Rusty says.

"I don't think any girl will go _head over heels, breaking their way_ for us," Lincoln implies.

"Maybe, we could just enjoy this foreigner music and dance along on this dinky suits," Liam suggests. "I could get used to this all day."

"Liam, maybe you're not getting the point. There are a lot of people in this house," Lincoln points out. " _One of us is crying. One of us is lying in her lonely bed, staring at the ceiling and wishing she was somewhere else instead._ "

"And that is two ABBA references from you," Lisa remarks, shocking Lincoln. She then suggests to all of the people present in the living room. "Look, you could send all your complaints all day in the suggestion box. It's either take this or we could use the mental ray, but it will result on your faces being deformed."

Immediately, the guys settle down with going through the motions. "No! No! No! This is fine."

"I am better off singing than my nose on my forehead," Becky says.

"Only one request though," Dana brings up. And spontaneously, Lori's trio of friends belch into song:

 _Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight_

 _Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away_

 _Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight_

 _Take me through the darkness to the break of the day_

"Now this is a crowd I would love to be part of," Rusty reacts, which puts off the boys. "Reminds me of _Summer Night City_."

The girls continue to sing and soon perform for the boys.

 _Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight_

 _Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away_

 _Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight_

 _Take me through the darkness to the break of the day_

But right behind it all, Lori becomes worried.

Lincoln notices this and asks her, "You seemed to be down. Lori, _tell me what's wrong_

 _You're enchained by your own sorrow_."

"Bobby's just coming here later," Lori spills the beans to him. "I don't how he will react to this."

"Well, you'll never know unless you tell him," Lincoln says. "You can _make up with each other the way old friends do_."

Motivated by her brother's referencing, Lori finally decides to call Bobby. The phone still dials to his number. During which, their house is turned to a disco dance floor, complete with a disco ball and glowing tiles.

The girls from upstairs – Luna and Sam, Luan and Giggles, and Lucy and Haiku – slide down from the stairs handle bars in glam suits to join the fun with the upcoming number.

 _People everywhere_

 _A sense of expectation hanging in the air_

 _Giving out a spark_

 _Across the room your eyes are glowing in the dark_

The boys go along with the chorus line.

 _And here we go again, we know the start, we know the end_

 _Masters of the scene_

 _We've done it all before and now we're back to get some more_

 _You know what I mean_

And it happens that Lynn and her roller derby skate down and lead for the others to form a circle around Lori and Lincoln.

 _Voulez-vous_

 _Take it now or leave it_

 _Now it's all we get_

 _Nothing promised, no regrets_

" _Rock me_!" Liam screams.

" _Give me that feeling_!" Zack screams in excitement.

But back at the center of concern, Lori is anxious about Bobby not immediately picking up her calls. She dials to him almost ten times. "Come on Bobby. _Love me or leave me. Make your choice but believe me._ "

Just right at the 28th dial that he responded from his end.

Lori quickly responds, "Bobby! Bobby! _How you thrill me_! _Nearly killed me_! Where were you?"

To her surprise, a female responds to the call, "Who is this?"

Lori's excitement dies down when she hears another girl answering. "His…girlfriend…"

"Oh sorry, Bobby's busy right now. Sorry." And just like that, the girl ends the call, horrifying Lori. And with that, she faints in front of them, in the same style of Sophie in that musical.

Minutes later, Lori wakes to see herself being surrounded by everyone. "What happened?"

"You suddenly passed out, friend," Becky says to her.

"You're almost _at the point of no returning_ ," Lynn says with a jab. The others disapprove of her rather out-of-nowhere referencing.

"What happened Lori?" Dana asks. " _Chiquitita, tell us the truth_."

"It's Bobby. He…" Not being able to finish her statement, Lori breaks down. This gives the girls an idea of what she is going through.

"Oh my…" they gasp.

"Maybe, you are so much caught up with his _angel eyes_ ," Leni says.

" _He took your heart and you must pay the price_ ," Luan quips. "That's a rhyme."

"Come on, Lori _need loving_ ," Luna says.

"Man, this is the worst thing something could happened ever since I was in a trance when I kissed the teacher," Becky says, which raises suspicion by the rest. "What?!"

But it comes to a shock when Lori stands up to them and holds a microphone to her hands. Out of her troubled heart, she begins to sing:

 _I been cheated by you since you know when_

 _So I made up my mind, it must come to an end_

 _Look at me now, will I ever learn?_

 _I don't know how but I suddenly lose control_

 _There's a fire within my soul_

Altogether, the kids sing along with her in a rousing number to…no one else but them.

 _Just one look and I can hear a bell ring_

 _One more look and I forget everything_

 _Mamma mia, here I go again_

 _My my, how can I resist you?_

 _Mamma mia, does it show again_

 _My my, just how much I've missed you?_

 _Yes, I've been brokenhearted_

 _Blue since the day we parted_

 _Why, why did I ever let you go?_

 _Mamma mia, now I really know_

 _My my, I could never let you go_

To Act 2


	20. A Stella Named Desire

Girl Jordan throws another party for her classmates and friends. And this time, Lincoln and company ensure that they are prepared for what is to come.

However, as they are about to enter the gate to their classmate's house, they suddenly get cold feet; for Zack's case, he literally has cold feet.

"Okay fellas, this is it. The journey to socializing," Lincoln pronounces to them.

"Yeah, go ahead, Lincoln," Rusty says to him. "We'll just hang around outside."

"Yeah buddy," Clyde agrees. "We kind of needed fresh air before we enter."

"And I can't enter for a while," Zack says. "My feet are literally frozen."

"You sure take last time so personally, huh?" Liam realizes.

"Yeah, since yesterday after Girl Jordan invited us all," Lincoln utters. But he encourages them, "Look guys, we prepared for this very night. That we leave our past behind and look to our future, which is right inside. If we let last time get stuck in our minds, who knows what will happen?"

Clyde is so moved by Lincoln's encouragement that he agrees with him. "Yeah, Lincoln, you are right. We readied for this very night. So let's do this! Deep breaths fellas!"

At his signal, he, Rusty and Zack inhale deeply and hold in their breaths.

"Maybe without the heavy breathing," Lincoln tells them.

Though, they still keep their lungs full.

Proudly they proceed to the party. They could almost see the entire class huddled to this special occasion, with food, games and a pool, just like last time.

Girl Jordan greets them, "Hey there guys, glad you can make it to my soiree."

"Indeed," Lincoln replies.

But her attention is caught on Clyde, Rusty and Zack holding their breaths out of nervousness.

"What's wrong with them?" Girl Jordan asks.

"They are just excited," Lincoln claims.

"Well, help yourself." She then leads the boys to the table full of food.

The boys are just amazed at the varieties of food stuffs that are right before their eyes.

"This is heaven right here," Liam says.

"Just feast if you will," Girl Jordan says. "You would not want to miss the DJ later."

Just like that, the five of them stuff their mouths with the food they are willing to take. However, Lincoln just takes some nachos when he spots a Dance Dance Battle simulator nearby.

"Is that…?" Lincoln asks Girl Jordan, to which she nods. "Gotta run!" He then excitedly runs to take his turn for Dance Dance Battle. "Oh man, haven't played this baby for a while."

Much like the console from Gus' Games N' Grub, it is a two-man multiplayer one. While it was unoccupied, Lincoln takes this opportunity to play.

When he steps on the game, the console sounds, "Player #1 steps forward. Would you like to proceed?" Lincoln is about to select the "Player vs. Computer" option. But the console sounds, "Player #2 steps forward. Select background mode."

"What the?! Who would?" he gasps, then turns to the kid who kind of intruded his game.

Then a familiar voice tells him, "Never would I see another player here." It is none other than his new friend Stella.

"Stella, it's you!" Lincoln greets her.

"Lincoln! Hi! I didn't recognize you there!" she greets him back.

"What? You never recognized the boy with the white hair and the good looks right next to you?"

Stella chuckles at him. "That's a good one. Actually I did. Thought I would surprise you."

Upon saying that, Lincoln could feel the chills crawling on his skin. His thoughts circle around him that his friend might actually take a liking at him. "You play too?"

"Well, sometimes. My folks won't let me play videogames or go out unless I do my homework."

"Oh, that's normal for parents."

"I know."

The game then starts on the first round of the dance challenge to the beat of "Around the World" by Daft Punk. At the first beat, Lincoln willingly moves along with the beat on every step. However, as he looks upon Stella, he sees her getting every pounce to the floor board on perfect timing. This inspires him to catch up. And eventually, their moves are almost synchronized.

"Way to go, Lincoln!"

Lincoln is delighted to hear her compliment that he takes two extra steps and puts on his shades.

For two minutes, the round has ended, and they receive equal points.

"Wow, way to go too, Stella," Lincoln congratulates her.

"You got some moves in you," she replies.

"Well, I'm no dancer but I know how to score.

"Let's see it in the next round."

Cue the second round to the tune of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk again. "Get ready for the next round."

"Here goes nothing," Lincoln utters.

And in a whoosh of the electronic music, the two start to dance to every step on the floorboard. With the way they move to the beat and coordinate their bodies to follow the steps from the monitor, it is almost like they memorized the entire game. And much like last time, they synchronize their moves. Lincoln is just at awe that he found another person who has the same passion for a midnight game he plays in his favorite hangout in town.

After two and a half minutes or less, the round ends, and the two catch their breaths from dancing.

"Smooth moves," Stella says to him.

"You too. It's almost like you memorize the whole game," Lincoln tells her.

"It was nothing. I just like dancing."

Lincoln cannot help but take delight on Stella and her passion for dancing.

Finally, the third round cues to the tune of "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon. As soon as Lincoln hears the first beats of the infectious song, he recalls dancing this along with a special girl in his life. That girl of course is Ronnie Anne Santiago, who absolutely took his breath away, especially when they played Dance Dance Battle together in the midst of Sadie Hawkins dance.

The round begins but Lincoln shows little enthusiasm in following the steps. Nevertheless, he perfectly takes the round.

Stella notices him. "Lincoln, are you okay?"

"Wha…sure, yes. I'm cool," he replies.

When the song hits the pre-chorus ("She took my arm, I don't know how it happened…"), Stella literally takes his arm and swings him around to the chorus, matching the song's context.

It is almost like a trip to memory lane when he hears the chorus, and he dances it with another cool girl that he met. Maybe he gets caught off guard because the song is that catchy, or maybe he is hungry to get in the game once more. Whatever the reason is, he is so amazed at Stella dancing with him. He plants another memory to the song that he loves to dance to.

* * *

Meanwhile, Clyde swallows the food that he stuffed. But he realizes that Lincoln is missing from them. "Hey guys, anyone have seen Lincoln?"

"Nope, why?" Rusty replies with his mouth full.

Clyde then hears some disco-sque music playing behind them that separates it from the background EDM music that is playing in the partner. He turns his head to see Lincoln and Stella together. He tells the boys, "Guys, look!"

Rusty, Liam and Zack finally snap to see Lincoln getting along with their friend Stella.

"It's Stella!" Zack belches.

"And she's dancing with Lincoln!" Rusty exclaims.

"And not just dancing! Dance Dance Battle!" Liam follows up.

But Clyde halts him from there. "Yeah, we get it, Liam."

"How are those two able to move like that?' Zack asks.

Rusty vents, "No Zack, the more valid question is 'Why was Lincoln moving like that with Stella?!'

"Not sure, but they are hitting it off," Liam notes.

"Our friend is grown up now," Clyde tearfully acknowledges.

The boys just witness how the two are able to click through song and dance. It is truly a sweet between the two that Lincoln shall cherish easily.

The round ends, and the two catch their breaths with their eyes glued toward each other. Lincoln can almost see the spark through the way Stella moves and the way she looks. Stella sees the same spark with Lincoln, having to join her friend in an extravagant dance-off. They do not even care who gains the most points; they just love to cherish a good friendly moment.

"That was fun," Lincoln utters.

"Yeah, I almost couldn't catch my breath," Stella agrees.

"Maybe next time."

"Sure."

Lincoln almost feels breathless from his dance-off with Stella. "There's this cool place in town – Gus' Games N' Grub – where there's an arcade. It's like a full package. Pizza, games and fun."

"Sounds good. So that's a date?"

The 11-year-old's heart beats faster when he hears that his female friend is willing for a date. His eyes twitch, his hands shake and his skin crawls. But he manages to get cool with it. "A date?"

However, Stella notices Lincoln's nervousness. "Uhmmm Lincoln, are you okay?"

But he shrugs it off immediately. "Sure, a date it is." Not wanting to make his nervousness more apparent, he jumps from the topic, "Say, the night is still good and the DJ is not yet here. Care for a swimming match?"

"Fine by me," Stella says. "Last one to the finish is a rotten egg!"

"Oh I don't think so!"

The two then dive to the pool and take multiple laps; Stella ends up winning. Yet, that does not stop them from bonding.

"There he goes," Zack utters.

In obligatory motion, Rusty belches, "STELLA!"


	21. Brother and Sisters

Here is a request from The Amazing Ghost Musician. Have a good time.

* * *

 _October 2, 2033…in Leni's Brooklyn apartment_

The future has been kind of bleak, but majority of the people are taking proper measures to make this period livable. On this kind of year, Dwayne Johnson is President of the United States, half of the Congress consists of former used car salesmen and reality TV stars from Bravo, seahorses become a primary seafood in the industry, Tesla is now owned by Disney, traffic has escalated for the last ten years that forces some business to run as work-from-home units, _How I Met Your Mother_ is rebooted and China still exists. But kidding aside, it has been a wild transition in the real world from what was fifteen years ago to what was happening now.

But for the Loud siblings, it is a different case. Most of them have gone to their separate ways. Though they frequently communicate through their Snapchat phones, they never see each other personally. But most importantly, they never get in touch with their one and only brother: Lincoln.

None ever receive any updates about him. None ever take the effort to communicate with him. And none ever care to reach out to him. None.

Ever since Lily left the nest, Mr. and Mrs. Loud retired to Bali, leaving the Loud house with no one to guard it or take ownership of it. The sisters just tossed that concern aside since they carelessly assume that their brother would be interested on being the proprietor of the house. However, when the siblings, they gradually did not care much about each other. They just ought to go their separate ways and separate lives.

As for Luna, she has pretty much a rocky life. During college, Luna lent her talents to the underground rock scene. Along the way, she also took part in college protests against the administration. Her tactics led her and her companions to be arrested multiple times. After finding a gig from her freelancing as part of the underground bar house band, she dropped out of college and aimed to score with big names in the rock music scene. She played for music festivals, college pep rallies, impromptu concerts and other performance requests. However, her subsequent vices and toxic relationships with some peers caused her to be kicked out of her apartment and settle on sleeping on her friends' couches. But boldly, she reached out to her sister Leni for help. She agreed nevertheless.

Leni, on the other hand, has been mildly successful as a fashion designer and a blogger. Her pursuits in college caught the attention of some well-known magazines. They allowed her designs to gain exposure, which in turn results in her own designer label. It was slightly successful after finding a niche audience (which are her friends, young mothers and women from 55 years up). However, it was bought by a still ailing JCPenney. However, its demise caused her label to get null as well. She still had the purchasing money from JCPenney, but she does not know how to spend it. Eventually, Luna reached out to her, and she let her stay in her apartment.

Luna could only let the memories pass while looking at the apartment window with despair and uncertainty. She has her notebook and her acoustic guitar on her lap. Her notebook is written sheet music lines but has no notes on it. The now 32-year-old has been suffering from writer's block after the trauma of being homeless. She also left behind some vices, but she cowers inside the apartment whenever she feels urges of relapses. It has been difficult for her to stay away from her musician life (for the meantime). That is why she finds solace on being alone whenever Leni leaves for work for Lancome. Though, white noise consumes her.

Hearing it louder, she screeches, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Not wanting to contain it anymore, she screams one more time, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" And out of total frustration, she drops her guitar and throws her notebook and her pen towards the door. Luna feels no relief just yet. "AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Suddenly, a pile of mail drop by from the hatch. Luna notices it, as well as the hurried stops from the other side of the door. She assumes the delivery man must have been scared of her.

Luna then picks up the mail and checks out the pile. She hopes it would be a response from the recording company whom she sent a demo music for. She flips the rest back to a saucer near a table. But she notices one particular mail.

Right on time, Leni arrives back in the apartment. "Home at last! Hey, I just saw the mailman running away downstairs. Probably got scared of Mrs. Katz' cats."

"You don't say…"

"Yeah, I mean they're cute. But they're still horrifying. But she keep telling us they're cute. I mean how tragic."

But Luna's attention is still glued to the letter. But she finds it more serious when the sender is from the bank. She shows it to Leni, "Sis, did we…?"

Leni scans it out. "Hmmm must have told us that we have noticed him."

"Just because it said, 'For Immediate Notice'."

Finding that out, Leni opens the enveloped letter and browses through the somehow straightforward letter. She cannot help but gasp at its contents.

"What is it sis?" Luna joins Leni in reading the letter. Casting the highfalutin details aside, the letter generally states that the ownership of the Loud House, which was still at the ownership of the Loud family, has been redirected to a person named John Doe, under the agreement of the Loud estate. "It's a very, very mad world."

"What is it?" Leni asks.

"They are turning over the house to somebody we don't know."

"Oh no! You mean this apartment?! I don't even know that this is an apartment!"

"No! I meant the Loud house, dude. Our home. Mom and dad sold it to some hacky bloke named John Doe."

"Ooooh John Doe. He must have been a good guy. But why would he buy the Loud house?"

"You mean why wouldn't our sisters have the Loud house?"

"They say they didn't want it. And that they have other valuable assets to work with?"

"Like what? Their nose bridge?"

"Okay. That's kind of harsh. But you have to at least understand them."

"It's like they don't want a piece of our family history. How would you feel if that would be the case, huh Leni?"

"Okay Luna, maybe you're being too harsh. We can just talk this off with the bank or some lawyer or some guy. And maybe we can arrange something, like give us a chance to buy the house…"

"You could do that?"

Leni then stutters, "I…don't…maybe…somehow."

Luna immediately taps her sister on the shoulder in exhilaration. "Dude, we have the money from JCPenney. We can buy it from him! All we have to do is to travel back to Royal Woods, perhaps arrange a deal with the dude. If not, we can fight in court."

"That's a little big. Well, too big."

"It would be great! What do you say?" Luna ends with offering a handshake to Leni.

Leni is objectively nervous about the idea. As much as she wants to go along with Luna's plan, the fashion designer is not used on more responsible matters like land proprietorship and financial negotiations. Nevertheless, after pondering it for an hour, she complies.

* * *

Right away, the two take a domestic flight to Detroit, Michigan from LaGuardia Airport and take an Uber going to Royal Woods, Michigan. Along the way, the sisters are mystified how much Michigan has changed from the last time they got there. But the part when they finally entered Royal Woods is where their nostalgia glasses are dropped. More buildings, high rises and condominiums are scattered throughout the city, even occupying the once sprawling suburbs. Their favorite establishments, Burpin' Burger and Gus' Games N' Grub, have been converted to megastores on their lot. And the Royal Woods Elementary, as witnessed by them up close, has been demolished. It is truly breathtaking to see their hometown change.

They finally arrive at the Loud house. But it was not the same Loud house that they grew up in. The roof is tattered. The wooden post on the porch has cracks. The window's glass have been shattered. The wooden walls are filled with vandalism. And there are paint peels scattered around the lot. From the looks of it, the house must have been abandoned for years.

"Sure this is a good idea?" Leni asks her sister.

"Yes," Luna answer optimistically. "We can get a hang of it. There's a lot of work needed. But if we buy the house, we can turn it brand new again. And I can stay here. And you wouldn't have to be bothered with me around your apartment."

"But I actually like you…hanging around the apartment. Really. You've been a good help."

"Well, our house needs our help."

With that, Luna and Leni quietly proceed inside the house. The door is conveniently unlocked, so Luna opens it.

The interior is exactly how they pictured it. With no furniture around, other than a mattress and leftover stuff in the living room, dust has cluttered the surroundings. They sneak their way to the kitchen which was wrapped in plastic coverings. They find no significant object there. But that does not stop from checking out the entire house, going to their parents' room, the yard and finally, the upper floor. Much like the rooms downstairs, they contain plastic coverings, dust, paint peelings, leftover glass from the cracked windows and dust.

Luna meanwhile enters her old room that she shared with Luan. Even if there are no furniture nor leftover belongings, she could almost reminisce the good times she had.

So does Leni. When she revisits her room, she looks through the old walking closet and recalls the happy times she had with Lori and the rest of her siblings.

After that trip to memory lane, Leni and Luna go downstairs but they stop at the second step down and rest on it. They are entirely speechless of the state of their once beloved house. They could only utter a sigh from the gloominess of the place.

"Well, that was it," Luna utters.

"Wasn't like it. But it's still here," Leni agrees.

Suddenly, the front door opens at their surprise. But as the light taking over their eyes recedes, a familiar figure emerges from it. Beneath the man's ruffled face, his messed up body, his worn-out clothing, his tattered shoes and his tired expression, they recognize him.

"Lincoln?"

Immediately, their eyes are glued to those of their beloved brother. He drops his belongings down, and they rush to take him into their embrace. The broke Lincoln breaks down in tears after finally seeing the sisters who really loved him at first. Luna and Leni also cannot help but let the tears flow after finally seeing their brother from a long, long time. It never comes across to their mind to ask what led him to come to the house. They just embrace him.

"We missed you, bro," Luna weepily says.

"I missed you, too," he replies.

They seize that moment when lost brother and struggling sisters meet face to face after all these years and share each other's embrace.

It is also relief for the sisters to finally see their most estranged sibling safe and sound from all the trouble that went with him.

* * *

Afterwards, Leni treats them for pizza. There, Lincoln explains to his sisters that his wife and his children passed away from a car accident. He tried to inform the family, but they never reply back. Sooner, after the funeral, he got heavy in debt from the funeral and hospital costs that he had to sell his possessions and his house. He alerted his parents about his homelessness. Receiving that news, they bestowed the Loud house to him, since the house is of lower value. As of now, he remained at the house, trying to look for a decent job.

Hearing his testimony makes it more emotional for the sisters. Leni then offers Lincoln a place to stay in her apartment and a job in her company as part of her company's building maintenance. He agrees so, under the condition that he will help revamp the house to its glorious form.

They end their dinner with a toast with pizza before they pack for their flight back to New York.

Luna and Leni are glad that their brother is found.


	22. A Star is Loud

Mick Swagger has gained everything in this world. He draws large numbers in his concerts. He is adored by millions of fans around the world. He has reaped tons of awards. And he has been widely recognized as a great figure in rock-n-roll. He cannot get no satisfaction.

But deep inside, he is lonely. Despite his countless blessings, he still feels lonely. He tries to search for that "one thing" to fill his gap, drowning himself in high caffeine and binging on the documentaries featuring him. But he is nowhere to being happy or even content. He gets no satisfaction.

Yet, in the midst of the darkness, he sees a star shining bright over him. He longingly seeks for it.

* * *

One night, after Day One on a nationwide concert tour, starting in a rocky field in Royal Woods, Michigan, Swagger escapes the bustling crowd of fans to his private vehicle. Not even a crowd of screaming fangirls can stop the onyx-colored car to hurtle away from the concert grounds.

Immediately, Swagger seeks his nightly binge on bottled iced black coffee. A couple of gulps more, his bottle runs out. He can feel himself palpitating from the high concentration of coffee. But he simply shrugs it off with a loud huff.

"You okay, Mick?" his chauffeur asks.

"Yes I am," Swagger answers through his British twang, almost sounding like in a drunken stupor. "Say Greg, are there any bars along the way?"

"Seeing from the map, there's none. Although there's a café nearby."

"Great!" Swagger spouts, almost posseting through his words. "I'll take it. Need something to let this daddy stay awake."

"Have you run out?"

"Yes. I actually had this song in my head that I wanted to write. It goes… _goodbye_ …something something… _like a rainbow_. That stuff, which I think would look good in movie soundtracks."

"Have you started writing it?"

"Not exactly. Just take me to a café." Swagger slightly belches, but keeps his composure as it is.

After a few turns and stops to an intersection, the car stops at an al fresco café where millenials, higher education students, young pros and single people hang out for a talk and cups of coffee. There is also a stage specialized for the house band and any special performer for the night. Mick confidently enters the establishment. Fans in the building are amazed to see him that they ask for photos with him. He simply goes along but walks immediately to the counter. "Just black hazelnut. No sugar or milk." The barista takes his order.

Suddenly, a man with a hulking appearance, a nose ring, a beret hat and leather jacket approaches Swagger. "Mick Swagger, it's good to see you. I'm Chunk by the way. Glad you came all the way here."

"Well, the coffee ran dry. So snatching up one," Swagger replies nonchalantly as he wishes to lean to the counter solely.

But Chunk is so insistent. "Mick! Mick, you gotta listen to this. My man Luna is performing next. And you'll be begging for more of her tunes."

"Great…"

"Come on! Right here." Chunk then shows Swagger to the best table in the house.

"But my coffee…"

"They can serve it to you here. Just watch and you'll see a rock star in the making."

Just like any pattern, Swagger simply goes along with Chunk.

The emcee appears onstage to call on the next performer. "Okay everybody, you all having a good time now? Now, let me call on my girl who has been rehearsing for a while now. But now, she is having a 45-minute time of her life. Please welcome Royal Woods' finest, Luna Loud!"

Applause greets Luna as she walks to the stage with her acoustic guitar. As for her electric guitar, she is not allowed to use, in par with the café regulations. But through her strumming skills, she may have the skill to weave a rock song from the simple Baton Rouge guitar.

Swagger wants to give the benefit of a doubt. But he is still seeking for a cup in hand.

When the young rocker plays the first chords of her song, Luna sings in a soft mellow voice:

 _I can't get no satisfaction_

 _I can't get no satisfaction_

 _'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try_

Swagger's ears immediately become attentive to her voice.

 _I can't get no!_

 _I can't get no!_

 _I can't get no!_

 _I can't get no!_

That is when Luna goes full throttle in her strumming that the time signature shifts from a calm acoustic to a hard rock. She gives it all with her acoustic guitar, thinking it is her electric guitar.

The audience rock along with Luna's number that there is all jumping and jamming to the beat. Even with no percussions or other accompanied instruments, they still jam along.

Swagger soon feels the beat. And sooner, he feels something else: a rocker in the making from the young Luna. He fully realizes this that he ignores his coffee being served to him.

The performing Luna climbs down the stage to explore the supportive audience. But soon, she realizes that among the jamming audience, Mick Swagger is one of them. She cannot help but hear the fangirl within screaming as she sees her idol, right in front of her. But she keeps performing, dedicating every gesture, every tone and every prowess to him.

She approaches him as she goes to the final half of the song. There, they meet eye to eye. Only Luna sees only from his shades. But from Mick, he sees a star in the making through his shades. On that one glimpse, his world stops.

 _No satisfaction_

 _No satisfaction_

 _I can't get no!_

 _I can't get no!_

She ends her performance with her fist to the air, holding the microphone. The audience gives a round of applause. Mick simply gives a quiet clap in amazement.

"Give it up for Luna!" The audience then cheers and hollers her name.

* * *

After the show, Luna packs her stuff, with the help of Chunk.

"You sure you don't want to do this full time?" he asks. "I mean we can book you a gig every Tuesday night."

"Chunk, I still have school," Luna replies. "Maybe it is not the best time. Okay? Besides, I had a lot of gigs prior to that. Time to get back to 'not' the school of rock."

Abruptly, Mick Swagger's car passes by them. Swagger rolls his windows down to seek Luna. "Hey there, you sure have rock-and-roll flowing in your blood. I like it."

"Thanks Mr. Swagger, sir!" Luna replies. "There's a lot I want to say to you. I mean I love every song you played, even those critics say are bad. But your words speak to me…"

Swagger hears enough of Luna's admiration for him that it sold him instantly. "Slow, slow down there. I get it. Why don't you hop on? We can talk along the way."

"I don't know." She looks back to Chunk since he is her ride home.

But he insists, "I'll drop your stuff at your house, tell your sis you'll be late. But not too late."

"Great!" After embracing Chunk, she hops on Mick Swagger's car, and they ride off to the quietest place they can find: a parking lot to a 24-hour convenience store.

They settle on the pavement, where Swagger chugs another bottle of ice cold coffee and Luna pulls out her songwriting notebook.

"That's some fine espresso," Swagger utters.

"You like your coffee, Mr. Swagger, sir," Luna reacts.

"Please, call me Mick Swagger."

"Well, Mick Swagger, just amazed I have to add that to things I need to know."

Swagger then notices her songwriting book, with the music sheets and the scratch paper reserved for the lyrics. He asks, "You write your own songs."

"I do. Trying to find that hook. But have yet to find it. So, I just write and think about that song in my head."

"But you sing your own songs?"

Luna simply laughs it off.

"What is it? What's funny?"

"Just thought of something. I write songs but I don't sing them."

"Why not?"

"Just thinking who would listen?"

"Were there people who would?"

"My family…my friends…"

"What's stopping you?"

"I don't know."

"Tell you what. You sing. I play the guitar." With that, Swagger brings out his acoustic guitar, waiting for Luna's moment.

However, she is still hindered by her own insecurity. "I just can't…"

"I am waiting," Swagger assures.

From the top of her breath, Luna utters these lyrics of a song:

 _Goodbye Ruby Tuesday_

 _Who could hang a name on you?_

 _When you change with every new day_

 _Still I'm gonna miss you_

"Well…?"

Swagger catches up to her melody and tries to pick up the music for the song. After catching its hook, he forms the tune on-the-spot. "One more time."

They do a duet.

 _Goodbye Ruby Tuesday_

 _Who could hang a name on you?_

 _When you change with every new day_

 _Still I'm gonna miss you_

Swagger additionally comes up with another lyric for the song: _Yesterday don't matter if it's gone_.

"So, Mick Wagger?"

With a smile, Mick Swagger proclaims, "Luna, I think we have ourselves a hit."

And that is how "Ruby Tuesday" was composed, according to this alternative _Loud House_ universe.

Thanks to this hit, Luna's career skyrockets after, propelled by a mentoring Mick Swagger. She is having a great time, while Swagger is trying to find satisfaction but failing.

A star is born…but when one does, what happens to the other?


	23. Tonight (from Loudest Thanksgiving)

This is an elongated snippet from the latest _Loud House_ episode "The Loudest Thanksgiving". As the family continues to argue over family dinner, Lori and Bobby escape the house and evacuate to Flip's for peace and tranquility. The feud between the Louds and the Casagrandes almost escalates to _West Side Story_ levels of insanity that it is fitting for the Tony-and-Maria-like couple to settle down on a place that neither of their relatives will figure out where.

The two just simply sips on Flippies, hopefully for the entirety of Thanksgiving.

"Hey, you two are gonna stay right there for the whole day?" Flip asks.

"Yes!" they both answer.

"Okay, I'll just be here, feasting on some turkey-jerky." Flip then takes a huge munch that he made or taken from the counter.

Meanwhile, the couple of the hour gazes at each other, sipping their ice-cold refreshments to their dry throats. Love once again blossoms between the two. Never mind that their families had brought an all-out war against each other. They have this moment to themselves.

"Oh Bobby…"

"Oh Lori…"

"I could have never asked for a better moment than this. Than to spend Thanksgiving with you…"

"Oh boo-boo bear, I could have never asked for a perfect time to cherish our love to each other…"

"I would go to life and death just to love you."

"Just like Tony and Maria, till death do us part…"

Bobby realizes that it is time for him to serenade to his love, just like in that cross-cultural musical that impact Broadway forever. The two of them are egregious fans of West Side Story that they both knew that the time, the place, the setting, the situation and the moment warrant a tribute to the musical they both love. Thus, Bobby begins to sing "Tonight".

 _Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you_

 _Over again, don't make me change my mind_

 _Or I won't live to see another day, I swear it's true_

 _Because a girl like you is impossible…_

But Lori halts him there. "Uhmmm boo-boo bear, what was that?"

"What are you talking about? It's "Tonight"! From _West Side Story_ ," Bobby gleefully answers.

"No, it's literally 'Fall for You' by Secondhand Serenade."

"Oh, I thought it was called 'Tonight'."

"Come on Bobby. You know the lyrics!"

"Yes, yes, I know. Just let me think." Bobby then thinks deeper if he truly memorizes the song that he and Lori had been singing in the car and during previews of West Side Story in their local theater. Truth be told, Bobby does not memorize the songs from the musical; he just mouths them since Lori memorizes most of them. He just finds Stephen Sondheim's rhythm very catchy, especially in show-stopping numbers like "The Jet Song", "America" and "I Feel Pretty". He tries to remember the tune through moving his lips until he picks up one song that got across his mind.

 _Tonight I've fallen and I can't get up!_

 _I need your loving hands to come and pick me up!_

"Bobby, wrong again. Literally."

"What? I thought that was 'Tonight'?"

"Yes, it was 'Tonight'." Lori makes emphasis on the artist of that song. "By FM Static!"

"Oh right, never pick up that was not from the musical."

"Well, can you pick up where we left?"

"Just give me a chance to think." Bobby then shakes his limbs and his lips to come up with the song that should strike to his head. After browsing in his rather mixed up memory set, he picks up another "Tonight" song, other than the one from _West Side Story_.

 _No, we're not gonna work this out tonight_

 _(We won't work this out)_

 _No, we're not gonna make this right_

"Jonas Brothers. Wrong!" Upset, Lori literally turns her back from Bobby.

The frustrated Hispanic teenager tries to recall that catchy song without having to rely on his phone for reference. He just wants to stay sincere to the musical phenomenon that he and his love enjoy together. So, he just throws every song he could think of that is entitled "Tonight". Lori will just repeatedly point out that real artist for that overly used title of a song.

 _Everything will be alright tonight!_

"Iggy Pop."

 _We own tonight_

 _We own tonight_

"New Kids on the Block. I don't even like them."

 _Tonight, gimme love with no disguise_

"Def Leppard."

 _Tonight is the right night everybody's alright_

"Keke Palmer."

 _Tonight, I'm loving you!_

"I don't even like that song!"

"Oh come on! How come you don't like Enrique Iglesias?"

"I don't like literally the actual lyrics of that song!"

Bobby then quits arguing after that. He simply utters, "Oh."

Lori then comes to a point of frustration. "Just admit it Bobby. You don't know the lyrics of the song, do you? Just say it!"

Under pressure, he shouts, "Okay, I don't! I don't the lyrics to 'Tonight'." Bobby fully accepts defeat as he breaks down in front of his girlfriend. "Okay, I admit I just mouth the songs with you when you said you are a big fan of _West Side Story_. I mean I like the musical too but I don't memorize all of the songs there. I can't even be proud of the song 'Gee, Officer Kripke'." He soon sobs like a baby. "I don't know it, okay? I mean I love their moment when they sing ' _Tonight, tonight, won't just be any night_.' It's lovely, Tony and Maria meeting together and serenading ther brief moment they have. It's so sweet that I teared up and cannot mouth the words because they are so good. I wish both of us do that. But it is too real to live like the musical."

However, Lori is immediately stirred when she hears Bobby mentions the right lyrics to "Tonight". Rather than cheer for him explicitly as he is sobbing for him, Lori comforts Bobby. "Hey boo-boo bear, I'm sorry I literally went kind of jerkish to you. Should have not done that. It is alright. We'll be together tonight." She then holds his hand in comfort.

Bobby wipes his tears and his watery nose. "Thanks babe."

They then take a warm embrace.

After then, Bobby suggests, "You know, I have a copy of the movie in my phone. Let's say we watch it while finishing our Flippies?"

"Sure," Lori agrees. "Then we get more Flippies to finish the day off."

"Fine with me." He then pulls out his earphones, and he and Lori take a matinee watching West Side Story while sipping ice-cold Flippies.


End file.
